Speaker, the ANC welcomes the initiative by the Department of Education in the Free State province for making funds available to improve scholar transport by buying new buses for farm schools across the province. Learners at a farm school outside Bothaville in the Free State will no longer have to get up at about four in the morning to get to school on time. The children at Bo Vaal Combined School were excited at the prospect of their school receiving a brand-new school bus from the province's Department of Education last week.
Hon Speaker, the school has about 200 pupils and most of them live on neighbouring farms in the area. Daily some travel about 12 km to school. The school's old bus was neither reliable nor large enough to transport all the pupils, and if they wanted to get to school on time, they had to wake up early to queue at the bus stop. The pupils complained about overloading and said that they sometimes left school late because the bus had to deliver those living on faraway farms first.
As the ANC, we always believe that the provision and acquiring of education is essential and the lack of transport ... [Time expired.] Thank you, Speaker. [Applause.]