MEDIA ALERT

STATEMENT ABOUT THE DELIVERY OF THE MATRIC EXAMINATION PAPERS IN REMOTE AREAS IN KWAZULU-NATAL

The Department of Transport is co-ordinating the delivery of matric exam papers from the Department of Education through its emergency services in northern KZN and some urban areas.

The Department of Transport is using the Defence Force specialised four wheel drive vehicles to take members of the department of education to the exam centres as well as delivery matric examination papers in remote areas, where bridges have collapsed and roads swept away in the raging river floods.

Over 100 (hundred) students from Zimele and Siyabonga Schools in the Mthunzini Circuit had to take their clothes off and use ropes to cross the flooded Gugushe river early this morning to get to the nearest school which is now the matric examinations centre.

About 85 students from Mashandandana and Zinqobele schools in the Manzamnyama Area are still waiting for their matric exam papers to arrive. Three school teachers from the above schools are stranded beyond two flooded Umlalazi and Thondo rivers which have also burst their banks.

MEC Sbu Ndebele said "my department will do everything in its power to make sure that students are able to write the most important exam of their young lives. We are also liaising very closely with the education department officials that nothing goes wrong with the examinations."

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