In April, a 16-year-old girl living on a dairy farm near Karidouw in the Eastern Cape was forced to walk daily to school via hitchhiking for about 24 kilometers. The provincial government failed to provide her with transport, which her mother had requested when enrolling her in Qhayiyalethu FET School.
On good days, a foreman from a neighboring farm would drive her more than halfway, and she would cover the rest of the route by hitchhiking, sometimes paying the driver 20 rand. However, if she missed the foreman's ride home at 3:30 PM, she had to walk the last 14 kilometers, arriving home around 9:00 PM.
The situation worsened on April 22 when the foreman stopped using this route, and since then, she has been unable to get to school, remaining at home. She is one of seven children from farms near Karidouw who have been unable to attend classes since April due to the lack of transport from the provincial government.
According to court documents filed by the South African Human Rights Commission, which approached the Makhanda High Court to compel the provincial government to provide transport for these seven children, as well as for more than 40,000 other students entitled to the service but not receiving it.
Human Rights Commissioner Tshepo Madlingosi stated in his foundational submission to IOL that many families had no other way to get their children to school. Madlingosi emphasized that for many students in the Eastern Cape province, state-provided transport is the only safe and reliable way to commute to school daily.
He noted that long walks to school are difficult or impossible for many students, and private transport is unaffordable. This forces families to rely on state transport to ensure a safe route for their children. Madlingosi added that the rights of these children have already been irreversibly violated, and the situation is deteriorating as they fall behind in their studies.
The Commission, together with six parents and guardians, filed an urgent application at the beginning of this month against the provincial departments of education, transport, and finance. They demand that the court declare unconstitutional the inability to provide transport for qualified students. Furthermore, they ask the departments and the provincial treasury to allocate five to twenty days to calculate the deficit, secure funding, and transport the students to school.
If the province cannot find the funds, the commission asks Finance Minister Mlungisi Mvoko to instruct the National Treasury to request the necessary funds within 10 days. Any minister whose department misses the deadline must appear in court personally to explain the reason.
Madlingosi clarified that such an order does not absolve the government of budgetary decisions. He explained that the requirement does not oblige the court itself to allocate resources or replace Treasury decisions, but merely directs the relevant state departments to perform their duties legally, urgently, and in coordination.
National ministers of education, transport, finance, and cooperative governance were also mentioned, but no order is sought against them.
The province contests this application, which will be heard in the Makhanda High Court next week. The current head of the transport department, Lomex Sisilana, informed the same court in January that as of the end of the 2025 academic year, 49,504 qualified students still lacked transport.
The commission's documents also refer to the education department spokesperson, Malibongwe Mtimu, who stated in January that 47,835 students were awaiting transport, and the transport department spokesperson, Unathi Bingose, who reported in March that over 40,000 people were without it.
The seven children live on two farms near the Clifdrift road near Karidouw, in the Ku-Kamma area, at a distance of 23 to 24 kilometers from their schools.
Kholiswa Swartz from Carmel farm reported that her two children, a niece and nephew aged 13 to 15, had not attended Qhayiyalethu FET since the end of the first trimester, i.e., since March 27. Swartz noted that the children remain at home, sometimes reading, and look sad. She is deeply worried because she cannot help them due to the lack of transport.
Swartz reported that previously the children used state transport at Clarkson Primary School until the driver on their route died in 2024 and was replaced. The family then paid 300 rand per child per month for private transport before sending the children to live with their grandmother on a farm near Bedford, where they heard about state support. However, schools in Bedford informed them that their applications would not be approved, and the family started paying 400 rand per child per month throughout 2025.
The children returned to Carmel farm at the end of last year, and Swartz applied for transport upon their enrollment at Qhayiyalethu in January. She was promised that transport could be provided in April, but no response ever came. In the first weeks of the school year, the children paid 20 rand for taxi rides and used hitchhiking, walking the last 16 kilometers home, arriving between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM. Swartz admitted that sometimes they lacked money for taxis, and they had to try to find free rides to school. Sometimes this worked, but when it didn't, they were forced to stay home and miss classes.
In March, parents from neighboring farms united to hire a private driver for 800 rand per child per month, which exceeded the child allowance amount. This driver resigned after two weeks, stating that the road was too uneven and the distance too great. A second driver, charging 850 rand per child, stopped working at the start of the second trimester on April 8 because not all families could pay for a month in advance. Swartz mentioned that her eight-person household lives on approximately 9,540 rand per month, covered by her husband's tractor driver salary and child allowances.
On the neighboring farm, Oudeverf Nkumisa Magaba reported applying for transport for her 16-year-old daughter in November last year when she enrolled her in Grade 10 at Qhayiyalethu. Her daughter never received it. Magaba said she paid 560 rand three times for a one-day round trip, which the family could not sustain. After the collapse of the private arrangement in April, her daughter started hitchhiking, getting a ride from the farm foreman until the N2 crossing, which covered more than half the distance. If she missed the foreman's return ride at 3:30 PM, she walked the last 14 kilometers and arrived home around 9:00 PM, or stayed with a friend in Clarkson. The foreman stopped using the route on April 22 when his fencing contract ended, and the girl has not returned to school since.
Magaba's two younger children at Clarkson Primary School had state transport until the end of April when their driver stated he would only continue working after payment from the government. They also remained at home since then. When Magaba asked the 12-year-old's teacher to send study materials via WhatsApp, the teacher advised her not to worry, as the girl was excellent and would catch up on what she missed. Magaba expressed concern that the children might fail, and that both are very stressed and unhappy because of the situation.
Babalwa Mzinganyi, deputy chairperson of the Qhayiyalethu school governing body, reported that about 450 students at the school applied for transport this year, but the department approved a quota of only 180. Mzinganyi noted that the school was not informed which specific students were approved, only which routes would be serviced. Despite following the required application procedure and meeting eligibility criteria, many students still cannot receive the necessary transport for regular attendance. This situation has persisted for several years.
Mzinganyi also mentioned that his own daughter, living 46 km from the school, used transport since 2023, but it suddenly stopped every year in the months before April due to carrier payment issues. Letters attached to the application show that the province knew for a year that it did not have the funds to transport every qualified student.
Transport Minister Kholile Nkata wrote to Mvoko in December, warning that the department had exhausted all legal ways of financing the program from its own budget and could not guarantee transport at the start of the 2026 academic year. Nkata stated in the letter: 'Any non-compliance with a court order that may arise in this context will not be a result of indifference or negligence on the part of the department, but rather a consequence of a limited financial environment and the absence of legal financing alternatives.' He added that without timely intervention, the province would face a scenario where legal non-compliance and service interruption become inevitable not by choice, but by necessity.
The Transport Department requested an additional 763.8 million rand from the provincial treasury last October. This amount included 483.1 million rand to cover the deficit for 112,696 already transported students and 201.3 million rand to transport 47,661 students whom the court ordered to be transported. The Treasury refused to recommend the 483.1 million rand in November, stating that the department was still paying taxi operators under a more expensive old tariff plan and had not implemented a student transport management system. It also demanded a verified database listing each student, route, and amount due.
The department indicated in its funding request that the system was stalled due to resistance from the taxi industry: operators claimed they could not afford the necessary smart devices and expressed concerns about the illiteracy of their drivers. The Treasury also refused to allow the department to transfer 22 million rand from salary savings to student transport, stating that the deficit would be covered by other funding sources. By January, the department had spent 840.8 million rand on the program, which is 116% of its annual budget of 760.7 million rand. According to its own projections, the deficit in the current fiscal year could reach up to 474.8 million rand.
When lawyers for families from the Legal Resources Centre requested transport in June, the head of the transport department, Andile Fani, only responded regarding children from Karidouw and Clarkson in July. Fani stated: 'Upon checking the database, it was noted that the aforementioned students are not listed in the list of approved students provided by the Department of Education.' He suggested that the interruption in transport services might have been caused by payment delays. Fani added that the responsibility for processing applications and informing parents lies with the Department of Education, and that transporters in Clarkson Primary have already received partial payment. The Commission stated that the Department of Education had not responded to any letters sent in May, June, and September.
Four other applicants live in villages near Butterworth, and their children or grandchildren study at Ndabanhlu High School, at a distance of 6 to 11 km from their homes. Nomahaya Mbombo from Seru village reported that her two sons, aged 16 and 18, walked about two hours one way because the family could not afford transport. Mbombo noted that they are exhausted upon returning home and have little energy for anything. On most days, they are too tired to do homework. She desperately wishes for them to be provided with transport, as it would ease their lives and eliminate four hours of walking every school day. The boys wake up at 4:45 AM, leave home at 5:30 AM, and walk along cattle trails through isolated rural areas, crossing two streams that become impassable after heavy rains. Mbombo's eleven-person household lives on 3,480 rand per month, received as child allowances, and she worries that her eldest son will not find the time or strength to prepare for his final exams next year. Her sons' applications, like those of other families from Butterworth, are listed in the school administration system as pending.
