Today, dear readers, we are publishing a story that should make any self-respecting nation feel ashamed of itself. It is a worn-out cliché to refer to the number of years since we had our first democratic elections that led to the new dispensation to lament lack of change, but wasn’t the very fight for freedom not meant to end such suffering?
But it would be a shameless lie to pretend our democratic order has made life better for everyone while we have plentiful evidence of the opposite almost everywhere we care to scrutinise.
The media’s role is to hold up the mirror and reflect to the nation all it needs and ought to know about itself, warts and all. And that is what we, as Sunday World, your favourite read, are doing on page 10 of the edition this week.
Now, you’ll agree with us that the lack of proper transport and other misfortunes of rural pupils in North West are nothing new. All the reason that makes this even more shameful.
Several years ago, this saga took a not-so-funny twist when the North West government announced it was distributing donkey carts to help ferry schoolchildren to school. It made for some comic relief for those indifferent to the plight of the African child. We refuse to see the lighter side of such a serious matter.
A few years ago, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the story of primary school children who were made to sleep, bathe and attend lessons in one, overcrowded classroom made national headlines and won the reporter who exposed the horror an award.
No doubt many similar tales of horror from rural provinces and other areas of the country remain untold, yet will most probably illicit superficial concern from those in power who, forgetting their near-criminal dereliction of duty, would nonetheless make promises to improve the lot of the children. Previous similar promises wouldn’t matter.
But haven’t we all collectively shirked responsibility by letting those who by virtue of holding public office and being in government get away with such incompetence coupled with a carefree attitude?
One of the parents we spoke to at Madibe a ga Molema, a rural village near Mahikeng, the North West capital, said more than 700 children had to find ways, including simply walking, to get to a school at least 8km away because of the collapse of the scholar transport. He asked why the government was simply not building them a school. Why, indeed. There evidently is a need.
Where there is some semblance of scholar transport, the system is beset with problems such as buses regularly breaking down, leading to lost learning and teaching hours, and overcrowding that puts the children’s lives at risk.
Commendably, the provincial legislature has shown a measure of concern, summoning the departments responsible for scholar transport to explain themselves and giving them until December to sort out the mess.
It will be interesting to see what will become of the matter.
We can only wait and see, yet hope this is not merely a show put up for appeasement while the can is nonchalantly kicked down the road.
