Family search for missing mother
6 die as bus on way to mine is set alight
The family of a missing Limpopo woman pray she is not among the six people who were burnt beyond recognition in a petrol-bombed bus.
Monica Mabilu, who cooks for workers at the Modikwa Platinum Mine in Limpopo was scheduled to board the bus on Monday as she was due to work the night shift.
Six people died after the bus was hit with a petrol bomb and caught fire in Driekop outside Burgersfort on Monday evening.
The bus was carrying about 50 workers to the mine. Twenty-eight were taken to various hospitals after suffering severe burn wounds. The deceased are four men and two women.
Monica’s son Gerald Mabilu said the family was still in the dark yesterday on whether his mother was alive or dead.
“We are waiting for the DNA results to identify the deceased because they were burnt beyond recognition. Police said they would call us when the results are out,” he said.
The bus caught fire after leaving the bus stop where Monica always boarded it.
Gerald, also a mineworker at Modikwa, explained their travel routine.
“I always leave early before her. I bid her goodbye when I left because I use a lift to work. If it wasn’t for the lift club I was going to be in the same bus,” he said.
Gerald said they had been to all local hospitals but couldn’t find his mother.
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said some community members had been disrupting the buses going to the mine for the past few months.
“They say the mine is overlooking them when it hires employees. But I never thought they could do something horrible like that,” she said.
According to police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo: “Two unknown suspects got into the bus and set it alight, using a highly flammable liquid. They then jumped out, leaving behind the bus already engulfed in huge flames,” he said.
Mojapelo said police were offering a reward of R500 000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible.