WATCH: Crutch Runner risks injury, humiliation just to catch a bus in Tshwane

He’s commonly known as the Crutch Runner for his tenacity in completing marathons despite living with a disability, but Tshwane bus drivers appear to have nothing but disdain for Ipeleng Khunou, 34, who requires assistance in boarding their buses.

Khunou was born with septo-optic dysplasia, also known as de Morsier syndrome, a disease which causes underdevelopment of the optic nerve, which negatively affects his ability to maintain his balance.

This, however, did not stand in the way of his dream of becoming a professional athlete.

A simple bus ride home from Loftus Versfeld Stadium, where he trains for his marathons, requires hours of waiting, begging, and pleading with bus drivers to park closer to the curb, and often involves the risk of injury and embarrassment.

The Citizen joined Khunou on a bus ride home this week, and met up with him where he was leaning against a concrete dustbin with crutches in hand, as the rusty, vandalised bus stop seating was placed upside down behind.

We first met up with him while waiting for the 14:10 bus to take him into the city. From there, he would be taking his final bus home to Pretoria West.

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Impatient drivers cause injury and damage

By 14:20, the bus had still not arrived, but late buses were less of a concern than ones that arrive but are too hasty in taking off again.

On several occasions, Tshwane bus drivers have simply taken off while Khunou was still making his way to his seat, resulting in him falling over and injuring himself and damaging his belongings. In November 2020, his crutches broke during a particularly nasty tumble.

“It was on a rainy day in the morning and I got onto the bus. This was a bad fall. I was further to where the first seats were and the driver took off. I fell quite awkwardly because I kind of tripped myself and I broke my crutches. I was without crutches and only got them from the City of Tshwane around May the following year. I couldn’t run because I didn’t have crutches for about six months. The crutches I use have shock-absorbers and I had to use regular crutches in the meantime,” he told The Citizen.

A similar incident happened in January this year, when he fell and broke his watch and his phone.

The physical pain and loss aside, Khunou says the embarrassment is almost equally bad.

“I was so embarrassed. It was not a nice feeling. I stopped using the bus for about a week. But when I used it again, another incident happened. I didn’t fall this time but as I was approaching my seat, the bus driver took off and I had to scream for him to stop.”

The problem he faces is that most buses do not have designated seats for people living with disabilities. He is never offered a ramp to get onto the bus, or any assistance to get off. Instead, bus drivers tell him they are not allowed to touch him.

Due to his daily challenges, Khunou has become quite familiar with the officials of the Tshwane bus service, as he has on numerous occasions complained about the treatment he receives.

While waiting with The Citizen for about 20 minutes, he called his contact at the bus operations office who told him the bus might have arrived earlier since there was no traffic due to school holidays.

The problem with this explanation was that Khunou had been waiting 20 minutes before the scheduled time.

Eventually he heaved a sigh of relief, when the bus finally pulled up at 14:35.

The driver, however, parked in the middle of the road, meaning as per usual, Khunou had to politely ask that he approach the curb as the bus was too high.

“Even if I do, the bus is full and you’re going to fall anyway,” the driver said before shutting the doors and driving off.

Finally, at 15:00, another bus arrived, and this time the driver was gracious enough to agree to a request to approach the curb, while also waiting long enough for him to reach his seat.

“I am used to this. I am no longer emotional. Every day I have to ask the driver to come closer. Most of the time they refuse. Sometimes people lift me up and help me and I often find that so humiliating.”

Ipeleng Khunou

As we finally entered the city, the bus driver blasted Zola’s ‘Ghetto Fabulous’ in the bus while Khunou had to yell out for the driver to stop as he could not make his way to the door while the bus was moving. The button to alert the driver to stop at the next point was inconveniently placed next to the driver.

The driver instead stopped in the middle of Pretorius Street and refused to approach the curb. His main concern was that approaching the curb could possibly ruin the side mirror.

“Is a mirror more important than a person’s life?” Khunou repeatedly asked the driver. Our photographer eventually assisted Khunou to get off the high bus and to prevent another humiliating and long wait, we eventually took him home.

Only 20 out of 254 buses have ramps

While the City of Tshwane’s bus service has a running fleet of 254 buses, spokesperson Selby Bokaba said 250 of them are universally accessible to accommodate those living with disabilities, while only four are high flow buses.

“20 of the fleet has dedicated seating space for disabled people inside the buses. These buses are marked in front of the bus with stickers for information to passengers. 20 out of the entire fleet has ramps over and above the fact that they are able to kneel towards the road curb. This is mainly to accommodate passengers when operating outside the urban areas where the road infrastructure is not suitably designed, and also in some heavily congested areas where loading zones are obstructed,” he said.

Asked whether bus drivers were trained to deal with and assist passengers with disabilities, Bokaba admitted that they were not, but instead practiced the “Batho Pele” principles and the proper use of ramps, lifts, wheelchairs, and passenger restraint systems which are fitted on the buses.

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“[This is] in terms of the current rules of the City. There are some legal complications should there be an accident in the process which might result in the injury of the passenger. They are limited to assist in pushing the wheelchair to assist the passenger inside the buses,” he said.

The City has denied claims by Khunou that he has fallen while boarding the bus, and according to Bokaba, video footage shows otherwise.

“Having gone through all the evidence provided such as tracking emails, video footage, bus driver statements, passengers’ statements, we’re of the view that there is more to the complaints. As such, the divisional head of Tshwane bus services has resolved that his office will arrange a meeting in the preferred location and time of the complainant to discuss the issues that he is having within our system. The meeting request will be communicated to the complainant before the end of this week,” he said.

Crutch Runner just wants to empower children like him

Khunou initially started running to try and lose weight, when he weighed 120kg often leading to him breaking his crutches.

This weight loss exercise quickly became a passion and he now has a Two Oceans marathon under his belt, and plans to run the London Marathon in October.

“I am lobbying for running on crutches to be a Paralympian sport… Hence, I decided to run marathons which I am allowed to participate in. Paralympics allow for prosthetics, the blind, wheelchairs, and others with disabilities… I don’t have a category at the Paralympics.”

“I need to make sure this doesn’t stop with me. I am launching a foundation this year for popular marathons to include children with crutches. I am going to be running overseas next year too. The plan there will be to invite runners on crutches to be running with me. The Dutch Olympic Committee Dutch Sports Federation plans to get Go-Pro cameras on me to introduce this to the Netherlands.”

rorisangk@citizen.co.za