After the news that at least six children were killed when a bakkie overturned in Pietermaritzburg recently the Western Cape's transport minister Donald Grant has addressed the legality of transporting children in bakkies. He said the government was obliged to provide transport to school-going children whose schools were more than five kilometres from their homes.
Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of children throughout South Africa are carried to school by bakkies and many have died because of traffic crashes involving other vehicles and taxi drivers taking chances.
The Automobile Association (AA) said little had been done to reduce deaths in South Africa.