20 Mar 2022

The Ministry of Basic Education is unable to maintain or replace boarded vehicles due to financial constraints.

Answering a question in Parliament recently, basic education assistant minister, Ms Naniki Makwinja said funds permitting, if new vehicles were availed the ministry would give first priority to boarding schools.

“I am aware that some official vehicles allocated to schools have either been boarded or remain with prolonged mechanical problems without replacement.
Parwe Junior Secondary School in Mahalapye is one such school,” she said.

However, the assistant minister said in the interim, the ministry would continue sourcing vehicles through the Central Transport Organisation (CTO) and from other government departments.

“Please note that combies, buses and trucks are no longer issued to schools, but are only issued to either region or sub-region to service the entire area, except for those schools with special projects such as Moeng College.

Currently, Mahalapye sub-region has four combies that service schools in the area whenever need arises,” she added.

Also, she said the ministry would continue to share vehicles among schools and the sub-regions.

She added that in the longer term, they would continue to budget for new vehicles and ensure optimum use of transport resources.

Mahalapye West MP, Mr David Tshere had indicated that official vehicles allocated to Parwe JSS had either been boarded by CTO or sitting with prolonged mechanical problems and not functioning, but without replacement.

Mr Tshere thus wanted to know if the ministry had both short and long term plans to address the situation. ENDS