Families forced to wait for lengthy probe into grisly bus crash to conclude
Initial information was that the driver of the bus travelling from Molepolole in Botswana to Moria in Limpopo to commemorate Easter plunged about 100m down the bridge along the R518 Mmamatlakala Pass in Limpopo.
The driver reportedly missed a turn off that would have taken the bus to the N11 road after going through the Groblersberg border post last Thursday. As a result, the bus ended up on the R518 Mmamatlakala Pass.
The pass, a high accident zone, is described as one with “26 corners, one of which is a sharp hairpin of 160 degrees with a long bridge at its apex; a length of almost 10 km and a height gain of 415 metres”.
An eight-year-old, girl who was reportedly flung out of the bus before it crashed through the cement and steel barriers, was the sole survivor of the crash. The girl was initially admitted to the Masebe Hospital in Bakenberg before being transferred to the Mokopane Hospital in Mahwelereng about 60 km away.
Last Friday, some family members of the 45 pilgrims who died sat dejected in the corridors of the Mokopane Hospital as government officials from Botswana and SA deliberated on the tragedy on Good Friday.
The family members, who did not want to speak to journalists, had travelled from Botswana after receiving news of the accident which happened last Thursday morning in Limpopo. They sat in a mournful state on benches at the hospital as the meeting between officials went on for more than two hours.
Last Friday, Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba said the girl is recovering well and is not in a critical condition.
“The child is doing well. She is in safe hands. We are positive that she will recover,” said Ramathuba.
Dr Sanji Monageng, Botswana’s High Commissioner to South Africa said the girl was responsive and had even provided hospital staff with her mother’s contact details out of memory, a sign that she was not critical.
Ramathuba said so far the girl had not spoken about the accident probably due to trauma. The girl was reportedly travelling with her grandmother, who also died in the tragedy.
The families now face the prospect of a long wait before they can identify and perform funeral rites due to the complexity of the identification process.
Ramathuba said that last Friday rescue teams had collected the remains of some of the victims which had been salvaged into 34 body bags. Out of that number, only nine bodies were identifiable.
She said though there were 34 body bags, this did not necessarily translate into that number of bodies. After crashing through the bridge barrier, the bus slammed onto a cluster of rocks and burst into flames.
Rescue workers at the scene spoke of bodies scattered around the scene among rocks and trees. Pieces of clothing hung on tree branches.
Ramathuba could not say how long the identification process, which will include the taking of DNA samples, would take as it would involve various departments.
Monageng said the pilgrims — 31 women and 15 men — who came from Molepolole, near Gaborone, were a small close-knit community that knew each other which would help with the identification process.
“We are heartbroken. We have witnessed something that we don’t even dream of witnessing [before],” she said.
She said so far the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) is the only entity that has all the names of the pilgrims on the bus.
Two ZCC representatives were part of a high-level meeting between SA and Botswana government officials but the church has not made any official comment on the tragedy.