School transport will be back to normal on Monday for thousands of Gauteng pupils following an end to a two-week dispute between the education department and bus operators.
Education spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi on Friday said pupils will have ”normal transportation” from Monday.
However, he refused to disclose the details of the agreement between the department and the South African Bus Operators’ Association (Saboa), saying both parties have agreed to keep these private.
About 125 bus operators across Gauteng stopped reporting for duty two weeks ago following a dispute in mileage payment.
Operators were demanding the department increase their rate of 25c/km per child to 35c/km. They said they could not operate on the rate offered by the education department.
Saboa manager Eric Cornelius said the department had been paying operators 20c/km for each child since 2003 and that it owed operators ”a few million rands” for monthly claims.
More than 60 000 pupils were left stranded by the strike. — Sapa