Cape Town - The Western Cape Department of Basic Education has acknowledged there have been a few disruptions caused by the current taxi strike in the province.
Last week, national taxi association Santaco said they would be embarking on a two-day strike after the Blue Dot project was cancelled.
MEC for the department David Maynier said there were matric pupils who reported to exam centres who were not registered for today’s exam.
“In preparation for today’s taxi strike, we communicated with our candidates and exam centres very early on, so that they had enough time to make plans to get to their exams today.”
Maynier reminded all candidates that should they not be able to get to their venue, they should report to the nearest exam centres with their ID and exam admission letter.
Candidates must arrive by 10am at the latest for a morning exam, and 3pm at the latest for an afternoon exam. Candidates will have full time allocation to write the exam.
Bulumko Senior Secondary School in Khayelitsha said they had one absent matric pupil from today’s paper. The school also confirmed that one Wynberg High School pupil and four private matric learners reported and wrote at their exam centre for this morning’s exam.
The MEC thanked all the schools that co-operated in the best interest of the matrics.
Golden Arrow Bus Services, whose buses have been shown ablaze in circulating videos and pictures, released a statement expressing deep sympathy for the affected matric pupils.
“It is a very difficult morning for Golden Arrow and our passengers. At the forefront of our minds are the 33 000 matrics who need to write today.”