Lifalethu (11) and his relieved mother Siba Mbasana. (Photo: Supplied) 
“I was so grateful. I have never had an experience where people do not stop calling me. Many of them were praying for me and I believed that whatever the time is, my child [would] sleep [at] home,” said Siba Mbasana.
Her 11-year-old son, Lifalethu, went missing after he had to make his own way home from Simon’s Town School in Cape Town’s Deep South to Khayelitsha after a driver kicked him off a bus because he had lost his ticket. Alerts went out on social media, with communities from both Simon’s Town and Khayelitsha rallying to assist.
Lifalethu is now safe at home after he walked much of the way home – he got a lift with someone to Strandfontein and then started walking to Mandela Park, Khayelitsha.
His normal bus trip is more than 70km while it’s more than 50km if he were to travel directly from school to home. He walked at least 13km of the journey on Monday, arriving home at 9.50pm – seven-and-a-half hours after the bus left Simon’s Town.
Golden Arrow Bus Services has confirmed that the driver who kicked the boy off the bus has been suspended. Lifalethu was in his school uniform when he tried to board the bus and a sibling even offered to pay his fare.
Mbasana said that on Monday morning, Lifalethu and his two younger siblings boarded a bus from Khayelitsha to their school in Simon’s Town.
At the end of the school day, “as other children entered the bus, my son [discovered he had] lost his ticket and the bus driver told him to get [off] the bus.
“He had no choice but to get [off] the bus and he was separated from his young siblings… The young ones had to go on their own.
“My middle child wanted to pay for the older sibling but the driver said that is not possible, and he was left outside by the bus driver. So he started walking behind the bus to go home.”
When they got home, Lifalethu’s two siblings told their mother what had happened. She contacted her husband, Sipho. He alerted a friend, who drove to Simon’s Town to look for the missing boy.
“We were all crossing our fingers and praying that my child would maybe arrive with the last bus of 5.20pm, but I realised that it was now 7pm and my child hadn’t arrived. I panicked and I phoned Golden Arrow. I was mad, calling the police station in Simon’s Town to look for my child,” she said.
Her husband joined the police in Simon’s Town and a Golden Arrow inspector in the search for Lifalethu.
They failed to find him and her husband came home to collect recent photographs of Lifalethu.
“I know that once they want photos they are going to declare my child as a missing child,” Mbasana said.
Lifalethu’s picture was circulated and people started searching for the 11-year-old.
“Late at night, I heard a knock and it was a lot of young law enforcement people coming with my child. As my child explains, he says he walked from Simon’s Town at 2.30pm to Khayelitsha at around 9.50pm,” she said.
Help from law enforcement
City of Cape Town law enforcement spokesperson Wayne Dyason said Law Enforcement Advancement Plan officers helped the boy get home.
Dyason said officers received information via community WhatsApp groups about a missing boy.
“Officers later spotted the boy walking with an adult male. It turned out that the man is a security officer who found the boy walking alone in the area and then tried to assist the lost boy to get home,” he said.
Dyason said the boy told the officers he lost his bus ticket at school, then got a lift with someone to Strandfontein, in Mitchells Plain, and walked from there to Mandela Park, Khayelitsha, where he met the security officer.
“Officers took the boy to his home where they were greeted by his very relieved mother,” said Dyason.
On Monday night, a Golden Arrow Bus Services manager visited the family.
Mbasana said: “The Golden Arrow people told me that what the driver did was against the law. You don’t kick the child out because he does not have a ticket. They could have taken the child in and called me as a parent to come and pay — and not leave a child stranded.”
Mbasana was promised the driver would be suspended. “I told them that is not good enough because people who are suspended can be reappointed again,” she said.
Golden Arrow spokesperson Bronwen Dyke-Beyer said company policy was to assist uniformed scholars who had lost their tickets. She confirmed the driver had been suspended.
“We have undertaken to review all mechanisms related to lost scholar tickets to ensure that protocol is followed in such cases,” she said.
“In circumstances where unaccompanied minors are making use of our services, we would ask parents to assist us by ensuring that their children are able to contact them in an emergency situation and that they advise their children on what to do in a situation where they are not able to catch their bus for whatever reason,” she said.
On Tuesday, the Simon’s Town School principal Lucresia Harrison issued a statement.
“Thank you to everyone for your concern, love and care and the quick action and responses last night. We appreciate everyone’s support,” it read.
“The safety of our learners is of the utmost importance and is always a priority. We have had many learners who have lost their bus tickets or money. They always report to the office or their educators and without hesitation, we provide the bus fare from our own pockets. The parents are contacted immediately.” DM