Lauren Isaacs24 July 2024 | 8:20

Family of schoolboy forced to walk 50km home from school still shaken

Lifalethu Mbasana, who attends Simon's Town Primary School, was left stranded in the area on Monday when he wasn't allowed on his bus without a ticket.

Family of schoolboy forced to walk 50km home from school still shaken

Picture: Pixabay.com

CAPE TOWN - The mother of an 11-year-old schoolboy who walked about 50 kilometres from Simon's Town to Khayelitsha after losing his bus ticket says her family is still reeling from the ordeal.
 
Lifalethu Mbasana - who attends Simon's Town Primary School - was left stranded in the area on Monday when he wasn't allowed on his bus without a ticket.
 
His worried mother, Siba Mbasana, took to social media to post a photo of her missing child, who was meant to take the 14:30 bus from Simon's Town to his home in Makhaza, Khayelitsha.
 
Lifalethu was spotted by a police officer a mere five minutes away from home, where he eventually arrived after 10 pm.

ALSO READ: Golden Arrow Bus Service suspends driver for leaving 11-year-old stranded
 
Mbasana explained her son was with his two younger siblings at the time: "The younger two siblings tapped their own bus cards, their tickets, and they went through. When it was his turn, he was looking for his bus ticket and then he couldn't find it. 

“The driver told him to get out of the bus because he is wasting his time, [and that] if he doesn't have a ticket, he must get off the bus. He had to step out of the bus, leaving his two younger siblings to go home by themselves."
 
Mbasana said Lifalethu didn't have a cellphone to contact his parents, but her youngest son called her from the bus to tell her that his brother had been left behind.

"I contacted my husband, who was in Silvermine. He sent his friend because he didn't have a car to go and look for the boy around the school, around everywhere, they couldn't find him."