A matric learner at a taxi rank is told - 'We told you to stay home. Go back home and sleep!' She is among the 456,020 learners who were prevented from getting to school on Monday as a result of the ongoing violent taxi strike in the Western Cape. A total of 17,449 staff members were also unable to get to work. Equal Education has called for urgent resolution and 'for both parties to find common ground'.

One of the hopeful commuters who made their way to the Samora Machel taxi rank on Monday morning is a grade 12 learner -- Nwabisa Amahle Vanyaza (18) who attends Livingstone High School in Claremont.

Vanyaza was chased away by stone throwers who yelled "We told you to stay home. Go back home and sleep!"

Vanyaza is agitated that she has to miss school as she is missing out on important school work that she will be tested on in the upcoming preliminary exams. She is due to write her preliminary exams from 4 September and is afraid that she will not be able to keep up with the syllabus.

"According to my school, you cannot be absent this much especially when you are close to your assessments and exams. I'm supposed to start writing on the 4th of September. How am I supposed to finish the syllabus when I'm already five days absent?", said Vanyaza.

Samora Machel in Mitchells Plain is one of the hotspots where taxi strike-related violence is at its peak and where a City of Cape Town vehicle was hijacked this morning. The working-class community members and schoolgoers are trapped in Samora where the main exit...