Forty scholar transport drivers in Soshanguve have completed basic first-aid training, and 27 scholar transport vehicles have been fitted with telematics tracking devices, as part of a road safety initiative led by the Discovery Safe Journeys to School Programme in partnership with the Afrika Tikkun Foundation.
The tracking devices monitor driving behaviour, including speeding, harsh braking, acceleration and cornering, giving drivers insight into their own habits on the road. Afrika Tikkun Project Coordinator Quinlyn Johnston said the programme focused on giving drivers “practical tools and support to improve learner safety.”
Drivers who completed the first-aid training were certified to provide assistance during a medical emergency while waiting for professional help first responders, not paramedics. The programme also includes defensive driving training and requires participating drivers to hold valid operating licences and Professional Driving Permits.
The initiative applies to private scholar transport vehicles independently hired by parents rather than state subsidised school buses procured by the Department of Education.
It lands against a backdrop of national concern. In February, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, addressing media during a scholar transport operation in Lenasia, said “driver behaviour plays a significant role in road crashes” and that her department was in discussions with the South African National Taxi Council on introducing tracking devices and, eventually, dashcams across the sector. “We should be able to control driver behaviour not only in the taxi sector as a whole, but also in the student transportation industry,” she said.
While that national framework is still being discussed, Soshanguve’s drivers are already operating with the technology Minister Creecy described, a local rollout ahead of any formal national requirement.
