Bus crash victims buried
TWO tiny white coffins in a long row of caskets at an emotional funeral service yesterday brought home the human tragedy of the bus crash that killed 24 people in the Western Cape last week.
Mourners wailed as they gathered in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, to pay their respects to those who died when a double-decker bus crashed on the N1 near De Doorns.
Among the dead were Ntandokazi Zamubuntu and Lakheka Somfongo, who did not live long enough to celebrate their second birthdays.
One of the crash survivors, Ntombizanele Khohlakala, said passengers had started singing and praying just before the accident. “I prayed and said ‘ Please God’,” she said.
Several cabinet ministers attended the funeral, including Zou KotaFredericks, Aaron Motsoaledi and Mildred Oliphant.
Motsoaledi, the minister of health, tried to comfort the mourners by saying he was glad those in the bus had been “believers ”, because otherwise there would have been “a crisis”.
He said at least 40 lives were lost on South Africa’s roads every day and the government was determined to put laws in place to stop the carnage.
All those who died were members of the Twelve Apostles Church in Christ in the Western Cape. The chief apostle of the church, Caesar Nongqunga, appealed to the bereaved to accept what had happened, saying their loved ones “had been praying when the accident occurred”.
The provincial leader of the church, Dumisani Ximbi, said they had no grudge against the bus driver.
Ashref Ismail, spokesman for the Road Traffic Management Corporation, told mourners that three comprehensive investigations were under way into the crash. “May God bless each and every one of you,” Ismail told them.
Another survivor, Nomalungisa Joka, said: “God must have left me behind for a reason.”