By Neo Kolane
Scores of Basotho students commuting to South African schools were seen returning home dejected on Tuesday after being refused to cross the border by Lesotho immigration officials despite the neighbouring country having opened up its borders on Monday.
South Africa officially reopened its schools yesterday – February 15 – after a prolonged Christmas break which started on December 15 2020.
theReporter took an excursion to Maseru Bridge around 08:30am where we learned that the students were allowed to cross on Monday only.
One of them, Lireko Ramahloli, a grade 11 learner at Ladybrand’s Sehlabeng High School, said: “today, the immigration officers told us they would process our papers only if we’re going boarding school, and that if we do cross, we won’t be allowed entry when we return.
“We arrived here at 6:00am. Our parents came to fetch us after we phoned to tell them about the situation. Yesterday, we used public transport because our normal scholar transport wasn’t allowed to cross.”
In a strange twist of events, one of the parents, ‘Mathabiso Lira, claimed the student commuters were asked for COVID-19 certificates yesterday when they returned from school, even though they had crossed in the morning.
The immigration and passport control officers declined to comment.
