Pinetown truck crash trial to be heard 27 May

A Swazi national whose lorry ploughed through four minibus taxis killing 24 people will appear in the Durban High Court next month, the NPA said on Wednesday.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Nathi Mncube said the case against Sanele Goodness May, who appeared in the Pinetown Regional Court on Wednesday, was transferred to the Durban High Court. He is scheduled to appear in that court on May 27.

At May's last appearance, his lawyer Lindokuhle Mdletshe said he wanted to make representations to the deputy director of public prosecutions. Mncube said this had not happened yet.

At May's appearance in February, Mdletshe said he had been informed that murder charges against his client would be dropped and replaced with 24 culpable homicide charges. Mncube confirmed on Wednesday that this had been done.

On the evening of September 5 last year, at the height of rush hour traffic, May's truck smashed into four minibus taxis and two cars at an intersection at the bottom of Fields Hill in Pinetown.

Twenty-two people were killed at the scene. Two died later in hospital.

Courtesy of the Port Elizabeth Herald