Four teens killed in taxi, bus crash
Father still battling to accept the loss of his teenage daughter
FOUR families in Ntuzuma are battling to come to grips with the loss of their teenage children, who were killed in a crash in the eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, town this week. Three boys and a girl were declared dead at the scene when a minibus taxi and a bus collided on Ingcebo Road.
Russel Meiring of ER24 said one side of the taxis wascompletely ripped open.
He said paramedics found the four schoolchildren lying outside the taxi and declared them dead at the scene.
Nkosinathi Mjwara had said goodbye to his daughter for the last time yesterday as she and her brother left for school.
Mjwara, of Ntuzuma, said he was “confused” and still battling to accept that his 16-year-old daughter, Thabisile, died in the crash.
He often took his daughter and his 13-year-old son, Njabulo, to school. If he did not, then the children would take a bus or a taxi. Yesterday, they caught the taxi.
He received a call from rescue officials, who were able to get his number from his son’s cellphone, telling him about what had happened. Njabulo was among the severely injured.
The distraught father said Thabisile had wanted to go with Njabulo to school, but did not reach Sibonelo High School in KwaMashu.
“People have been coming to pay their respects, but I have not noticed them much as everything is still a blur right now.”
He has not been able to think about funeral arrangements and said he would discuss them later with relatives.
A witness at the scene said the taxi tried to overtake the bus. She said the taxi was driving at high speed and there was not enough space for it to pass.
“What I saw was very painful. There should’ve been speed humps here because this road is very busy,” she said.
Khaye Mjaji was in the taxi. He was on his way to do his first-year registration at Sivananda TVET College and was injured when thrown from the vehicle.
“When the taxi crashed into the bus, the door opened and the passengers in the same row as me fell out. Some people who were left in the taxi were injured and others died.
“I went back to look for my takkie and saw the injured crying. I saw a boy and a girl lying on the floor dead,” he said.
Speaking from the Ntuzuma Polyclinic, 14-year-old Nonkanyiso Dlamini, an Isibonelo High School pupil and passenger, she spoke of the ordeal. She said the taxi had been speeding. After the accident, she contacted her father and told him what happened.
Lindiwe Msomi, said her brother-inlaw called her about the crash, saying his daughter, Naledi Mbatha, a Grade 9 pupil at Isibonelo High School in Ntuzuma, had been injured.
“I dropped off my child at school and immediately rushed to the scene,” she said.
Naledi had been living with Msomi since her mother’s recent death. A visibly relieved Msomi said she was nervous when she got to the scene and did not see her niece.
“Once I found out where she was taken, I rushed to the KwaMashu Polyclinic. She was a bit shaken up, but not seriously injured,” Mbatha said.
Mthandeni Dlungwane, Education MEC, visited the injured at the KwaMashu Polyclinic and expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased.
“What these taxi drivers need to realise is that they are not just transporting people around, they are transporting the future of our country,” he said.
Colonel Thembeka Mbhele, a police spokesperson, said the police were still investigating the circumstances of the crash.
“A case of culpable homicide was opened at Ntuzuma police station for further investigation,” she said.