Cops ‘targeting’ scholar drivers
|Published
DEADLY: Accident in Mitchells Plain. Picture: Patrick Louw
Scholar transport drivers says that school transportation is now being portrayed negatively following a fatal accident involving pupils last week.
The drivers operating within the Mitchells Plain area claim that they have become the target for traffic officers following the incident.
Brian Delily says they have scholar permits unlike normal taxi drivers transporting kids.
“We have scholar permits to drive the kids and those taxi drivers are reckless drivers and most of the time they are still drunk from the night before.
“We have our PDP and passenger liability while these taxis are protected by the government and the cops know what’s going on, but still target us, Brian explains.
He says that since that incident, he has been targeted several times while transporting scholars in the area.
“I was chased by cops last Wednesday and I asked them what the problem was, they wanted to check my licence. So yes, we are the targets and not the visitors driving recklessly and overloading in our areas,” he says.
However, Codeta spokesperson Andile Khanyi says that it is mostly taxi drivers that are targeted.
“It is the taxi drivers, nothing else. You can see with some of the bus companies they overload the people but I can tell you no traffic officers will offload the people,” Khanyi says.
Last week, a Grade 5 pupil from Rocklands Primary was killed when his school taxi collided with a BMW.
The MEC for Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie has also taken the recent fatal traffic incidents involving learners seriously as licensing of the vehicles involved has been investigated.
Meanwhile, Denver van Aarde, a fellow scholar driver, adds that people seem to be pointing fingers at scholar transport for being careless and unsafe following the accident.
“This is what we are facing, people are pointing fingers at us especially when you are driving. We are under the gun for no apparent reason the way we feel is that they blame us as scholars drivers,” he adds.