Transport driver says accusation over Jayden‑Lee Meek case destroyed his business

Transport driver Ndonga Khumalo told the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday that being publicly accused in the death of Jayden‑Lee Meek cost him his livelihood, damaged relationships and left his family isolated.

What Khumalo told the court about the drop‑off

Khamalo, who was the scholar transport driver for Jayden‑Lee Meek, said he collected the boy from Royal College on 13 May 2026 and dropped him last at the gate of the complex where the child lived. He told the court the security gate was not working electronically that day, so a guard opened it by hand rather than using the usual remote.

According to his evidence, Jayden walked through the gate carrying his school bag, with his tracksuit top over his arm rather than worn, and the gate was closed behind him as he entered the property. Khumalo said this was a routine he had followed for several weeks after taking over the boy’s transport arrangement from another driver whose vehicle had broken down.

He said he had no reason to think anything was wrong when he left the complex and that he only learned later that evening, when his wife received word that the boy had not arrived home. Khumalo maintained that he had safely dropped Jayden inside the gate and had no further contact with him thereafter.

Allegation and immediate impact

Khumalo told the court that Jayden’s mother, Tiffany Meek, had said to people gathered at the complex on the morning of 14 May 2026, shortly after Jayden‑Lee’s body was found:

“I blame the transport driver for what happened to my son.”

He said the accusation spread through the community and had a swift financial effect on the business he said he had built over six years.

“[It] damaged my business, man… [it] destroyed it. I lost an income,”

Khumalo told the court, adding:

“They stopped using my business.”

He said the business had only partly recovered.

“It’s slowly recovering, but it’s not where it was before this thing happened,”

he said.

Public hostility and personal consequences

Khumalo described how the accusation followed him in public. He said people would point at his vehicle and say:

“That is the white microbus that killed Jaden,”

and that a stranger who witnessed the drop‑off spoke up in his defence that morning.

“That woman saved my life,”

he told the court.

He said the fallout reached his family.

“Family members turn their backs on us,”

he said, and added that his wife who had arranged the original transport agreement with the Meek family had struggled with the aftermath. Khumalo also said his teenage daughter had been affected at school:

“My daughter was bullied in school,”

and that the accusation isolated him socially:

“No one wanted to be my friend last year.”

Court process and next steps

Jayden‑Lee’s mother, Tiffany Meek, faces charges of crimen injuria and defeating the ends of justice in connection with the case. Proceedings were paused after counsel for both the defence and the state raised confusion over floor numbering at the complex where Jayden‑Lee’s body was found.

The judge granted an application for an in loco inspection of the scene, finding “there is merit in such an application.” The matter was postponed to Wednesday, 26 August 2026, when the inspection will take place before the trial resumes at the High Court.