14 February 2022
Walking Bus project volunteers want the City of Cape Town to pay them a stipend and provide them with safety equipment and uniforms. Photo: Vincent Lali
Volunteers with the Walking Bus project are demanding that the City of Cape Town formally recognise their services and to pay them stipends with equipment and uniforms.
“We don’t get paid. We have nothing to eat. The new mayor took the stipend away. We want it back,” says Vanessa Adrianse, spokesperson for Cape Flats Walking Bus members. These volunteers walk children to and from schools in vulnerable communities and often assist education staff with patrols and other duties around the school.
Adrianse and other members picketed outside City Hall last week where the president and other politicians attended the state of the nation address. Adrianse told GroundUp that their pleas were falling on deaf ears. They also want the police to be more involved in the project, she said.
“After school some kids have to wait for their parents until 6 pm sometimes. If the police are there, they can help us take the kids home,” she said.
Adrianse said the volunteers needed backpacks, boots, caps, jackets and other protective equipment. “If the City doesn’t want to endorse the project, we will ask the national government to do so,” she said.
Siphenathi Bhekiwe volunteers at Manzomthombo High School in Mfuleni. She said her daily duties include “making sure learners cross the road safely and sometimes even monitoring them when they write tests”.
Bhekiwe said that during the period when members were given a stipend, he was able to support his family in the Eastern Cape and his children in Mfuleni. “Now I can’t even buy uniforms and stationery for my kids. My family in the Eastern Cape don’t believe that I don’t have money because I work,” he said.
Ruby Mthobeli said she started volunteering at Imbasa Primary School in Crossroads in 2015. “When I started to volunteer, bullying, gangsterism and drug abuse were rife in schools, but we rooted out such misdeeds,” she said.
“When Covid was at its worst, we used to sanitise kids while teachers did their work at school.”
Mthobeli said she continues to volunteer at the school without getting a stipend. “The stipend used to make a difference. I used to be able to buy food and even join stokvels, but now I have nothing. I can’t buy anything,” she said.
In response to questions about the volunteers’ demands, the City said that the project will be adapted to broaden the scope of the support they offer communities. It did not provide further details on the proposed adaptations.
The City said the Walking Bus Project was a great example of being an active citizen in communities. “It started out as a volunteer programme and continues to be a volunteer programme. For a short period over the past several years, a stipend was made available to show appreciation to the volunteers at the time. That budget is no longer available,” the City said.