Grade 6 learner back at school – and on the bus after he was made to get off and make his own way home

Lifalethu Mbasana is back on the bus and back in class after his seven-and-a-half-hour ordeal earlier this week.

Lifalethu made headlines after he had to make his own way from school in Cape Town’s Deep South to his home in Khayelitsha after a bus driver would not allow him to board. He was later reunited with his worried mother.

The boy’s mother, Siba, told Daily Maverick that the family had no option but to take the Golden Arrow bus, as their car was broken. “People are very supportive and making sure now that kids get on the bus and accompany them.” 

Earlier this week, Daily Maverick reported Lifalethu had lost his ticket and tried to board a bus with his two siblings in Simon’s Town at about 2.20pm to their home in Khayelitsha, some 50km away. Despite Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS) policy, he was not allowed to board the bus.

According to law enforcement officials who found him near his home late in the evening, Lifalethu got a lift to Strandfontein and then walked home, a distance of at least 13km. Specific details are somewhat sketchy. 

Meanwhile, his siblings contacted their parents and they began searching for him, while alerts went out on social platforms. 

The young boy was eventually reunited with his family just before 10pm on Monday. 

GABS has confirmed the suspension of the driver in question. 

Read more: Cape Town mother describes harrowing wait for son (11) who went missing after being kicked off bus 

News24 reported GABS had also arranged counselling for the boy and his family, as well as offering him a bus pass valid for the rest of the term. 

Lifalethu’s story this week raised questions both on social media and among Daily Maverick readers about why parents would send their children to a school so far away from their home. 

Simon’s Town School – started in 1815 – is located some 50km from the Mbasana home in the suburb of Khayelitsha. When Daily Maverick asked Mbasana why she would enrol the three siblings in a school so far away from home, she said her husband worked in Silvermine, located in the Table Mountain National Park. 

She said the kids were new to the school, as “I have always wanted to put my kids to a better school but unfortunately at that time I couldn’t afford it”. 

She said there was too much crime, including robberies, in township areas. “I wanted them to be far away from the township schools so that they don’t witness such crime,” she said. 

The family’s tale is familiar to many families who send their children to schools in different areas in a bid to secure a better education and in the long term a better future for them. 

In April 2024, Daily Maverick reported how learners in the Eastern Cape have to walk 20km to school and back in a day – the equivalent of a half marathon. This is the foundation of a court case against the provincial government to force it to provide transport for learners. 

Read more: Through thick bush, up hills and across rivers – Eastern Cape learners’ long trek to school

Western Cape Education Department (WCED) spokesperson Bronagh Hammond told Daily Maverick the WCED did not determine feeder zones for public schools in the province. 

“This has allowed for thousands of learners to attend schools in other areas across the Western Cape. For example, many learners commute daily to schools in the City Bowl to access learning opportunities. Some parents apply at schools in other areas which are close to their work or on their work routes,” she said. 

“This is their choice, and by not applying feeder zones, parents are given this opportunity,” she said. 

“It is not clear how many learners walk, travel by taxi or travel by private transport,” she said when asked if the department kept a record of how many learners travelled by public transport to school.

Hammond said learners used various types of transport, including private means such as their parent’s vehicles, public transport, independent transport service providers and the WCED’s learner transport scheme. The learner transport scheme “relates to learners living outside of a 5km radius to their nearest school and where no public transportation is available,” she said, adding that the WCED “transports over 65 000 learners on our Learner Transport Scheme every day”.

Joy Maimela, the spokesperson for Parliament’s basic education committee, said: “Everyone understands that companies have rules and regulations. This driver should have assisted the learner, especially since it is his company policy to help learners. He should also have been compassionate to the plight of the Grade 6 learner. We all know that it is not always safe out there for our children.”

When Daily Maverick asked Siba Mbasana about her feelings in the aftermath of Lifalethu’s experience, she said: “It makes me feel better that there is going to be change. I am tired and exhausted but people empathised, making sure that this changes.”  DM

Additional reporting by Siyabonga Goni