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Learners of Aquila High School in Fisantekraal were scared – and some in tears – last Thursday morning after taxi owners in balaclavas threatened to set the Golden Arrow bus they were about to board on fire.
About 47 grade 8 and 9 learners were looking forward with great excitement to a trip to Artscape to attend the Suidoosterfees Junior, a mini festival for learners – for most their first time at the Artscape.
They were part of 6 000 mostly disadvantaged learners from all over Cape Town, who were sponsored with transport, packed lunches and tickets to attend the shows from Monday to Thursday last week.
Grade R to 9 learners from schools from all parts of Cape Town – from Atlantis, Fisantekraal, Belhar and the Cape Flats – were treated in a project by the publisher LAPA/Penquin Random House in collaboration with Afrikaanse Onderwysnetwerk (AON) as part of the ATKV Children’s Books Awards to crown the most popular Afrikaans books.
Suidoosterfees
Golden Arrow sponsored about 22 buses last week to transport the learners to the Suidoosterfees. Packed lunches were prepared by local schools, Settlers High School, Eversdal Primary School, Welgemoed Primary School, as well as Jan van Riebeeck Primary School – each 1 500 sandwiches each, says Marieta Nel of LAPA/Penquin Random House.
Capespan sponsored 7 000 apples for the learners and the Curro Group 6 000 juices.
According to one of the learners of Aquila High School, the bus was followed by a taxi to the school. When the taxi driver saw the bus parking at the school, he went to the taxi rank in Fisantekraal to gather more taxi owners and they parked the bus in.
The learners, who were already lined up to board the bus, were told by the taxi drivers and owners, allegedly from Durbanville Taxi Association (DTA), not to get on the bus and threatened that the bus will be set on fire with the children and all, and that they must take taxi’s.
According to the learner the principal then decided that the learners must go back into the school for their safety.
Funeral goers
In another incident on Saturday taxi drivers, also from DTA, prevented funeral goers to board a bus to a church in Bellville and the cemetery. The taxi drivers also threatened to put the bus alight if anyone boards it.
“When we explained to them the bus was already paid and part of the deceased’s funeral plan, they just continue with their threat. Our people didn’t have the money to pay for transport. Many could not afford it to attend the funeral,” a family member says.
They had to cancel the bus and the funeral goers had to take taxi’s to attend the funeral at additional costs of R750 per vehicle. This came after a choir of Trevor Manuel Primary School was also intimidated by the local taxi association not to take a bus to a choir competition in August last year.
Bronagh Hammond, spokesperson for the provincial department of education, says it “was extremely disheartening to learn that learners from Aquila High School in Fisantekraal were denied the opportunity to attend the Suidoosterfees due to taxi intimidation”.
Wearing balaclavas
“The opportunity to attend was as a result of a generous sponsorship, which included tickets for the festival, travel and meals for the day. Unfortunately, on Thursday morning just before the learners were due to depart, members of a taxi association arrived in a taxi wearing balaclavas and blocked the road from the school,” she says.
“They allegedly threatened that they would burn the sponsored bus if any learner stepped foot inside it. They also demanded that the school uses their taxi’s for transport to and from the festival and that the school pay for their transport costs later.
“This is obviously counter-productive given that the planned transportation was sponsored. This is also a quintile 1 no-fee school serving learners from poor communities.
“Given the threats of violence and intimidation by the group, it was decided, with trepidation, to keep the children at the school, in the interests of their safety.
“The group continued to remain outside the school for hours ensuring that no learners left the premises in the sponsored bus. The end result is that no learners could attend the festival,” she says.
“It is disheartening to hear of the reports of both disappointment and fear in the faces of the learners that were meant to attend,” Hammond says.
TygerBurger made several attempts to contact the chair of the DTA and the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) for comment, but no phones were answered. Bulelani Nganyathi, one of the executive members of DTA, said to TygerBurger he cannot comment on behalf of the DTA.
