Aluta, the baby born on board a bus from Eastern Cape headed for the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) conference in Gauteng, is finally home.

She and her mother Tiny Ngcunukana were discharged from Bloemfontein's Pelonomi Hospital on Monday and left for their eMcombothini village home near Lusikisiki the following day.

A heavily pregnant Ngcunukana had joined the Eastern Cape ANCYL delegation to attend the league's national elective conference at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, only to go into labour while inside an Intercape bus toilet.

The bus driver had stopped in Bloemfontein for refreshments when Ngcunukana thought she needed to relieve herself, only to give birth to Aluta.

The premature born Aluta weighed only 1.4kg when she was born. "She is a big girl now. On Monday when nurses told us we were free to go back home, Aluta was weighing 2kg," said Ngcunukana while visiting a local clinic for Aluta's routine check- up last Thursday.

"I visited the clinic to check if everything is still okay. Nurses say she is growing well. Even though I did not get the chance to weigh her, she is growing very fast. I am so happy."

Her due date was next month, so she decided to travel to the conference because her branch in Ingquza Hill tasked her to field their branch chairman Xolisani Malindi as an ANCYL national executive committee member. She said she did not trust anyone else to "carry that mandate".

As a gesture of appreciation, her comrades raised more than R700 as "pocket money" for the new mom.