The metro bus strikes, and other strikes, in May 2009, have affected many in these trying times of global recession, including children. In reporting on these strikes, City Press’s Lumka Oliphant (“We’re sitting on ticking time bombs”, 24/05/09, p. 5) and Sowetan’s Gertrude Makhfola (“Commuters feel the pinch”, 20/05/09 p. 7) do not exclude children.

Both articles, “We’re sitting on ticking time bombs”, (City Press, 24/05/09 p.5) and “Commuters feel the pinch”, (Sowetan , 20/05/09, p.7) report on how the metro bus strike inconveniences learners, financially and physically, on a daily basis. They report on how the learners interviewed, that use the metro bus services, have to ask their parents for more money to catch taxis to school, and then have to walk a distance to reach the school gates.

The reports do not disregard children in the strikes as they realise that children are also commuters. Instead, they take into account how school-going children’s lives have been affected by the strikes alongside the lives of other people. They now have to wake up earlier and think twice before participating in their extra mural activities.

Micheal Lolo, Grade 6 of Troyeville Primary School enjoyed the article “Commuters feel the pinch” because he felt that it might encourage other pupils “to wake up earlier and make the most of going to school” (Children’s Media Monitoring Project, Workshop, 09/06/09¹).

Both articles give the learners a voice, and in doing so facilitate their right to express their views and opinions on matters affecting them.

Children’s views and opinions should always be taken into account in matters that involve them. By including children’s voices on the strikes, City Press and Sowetan show that strikes affect people of all ages, not just adults.

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Footnotes

¹As part of its Empowering Children and the Media Strategy, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has been working with learners in three schools in Johannesburg, developing their knowledge of children’s rights and building skills in media monitoring and analysis. For more information on this project, contact MMA.