On behalf of the Department of Transport and also the South African government, we associate ourselves with the sadness that was expressed by the hon member from the DA at the very tragic loss of 15 learners yesterday and of one driver, whom he didn't mention, in this awful accident that happened at Rheenendal in the Knysna district yesterday.
We would also like to express our condolences to the families, friends and school mates of those who died - indeed, to a school community, which has lost 15 learners. It must be an incredibly tragic event for them. I just want to note that yesterday, as soon as the news became available, President Zuma, on behalf of the South African government and the ANC, expressed our deep sense of sadness over this.
I agree with the hon member from the DA that at this stage we should not speculate about the causes of the accident. Certainly, based on the evidence at hand, reports in newspapers and other evidence, there is a strong suggestion that there was very serious overloading in this case. It was a 35-seater bus, but the number of children who were rescued - thankfully - and who died is more than 35. It also appears that the brakes on the bus were nonexistent. At this stage, these seem to be the core reasons for this dreadful accident.
I would also like to agree with the gist of what the member was saying when he said that we need to empower schools, passengers and, in this case, learners and parents to all take responsibility for the conditions in which they travel and to have the ability to say no. We have been talking about having a commuter charter, which would enable people to stop a bus and get off. In this case, of course, that would not have been possible because this was a bus that was picking up children from stops near their homes. It would have filled up gradually and wouldn't have been apparent to those getting on board and to their parents helping them that the bus would become overloaded.
Questions arise around the driver. Again, I don't want to speculate as he is now deceased, but very often drivers are put under massive pressure to drive under unsafe conditions. Very often, operators do this and I think we shouldn't necessarily entirely blame the driver in this case - although he should also have refused to drive if our speculations are right. Finally, ... [Time expired.]