State Security Minister David Mahlobo will tomorrow visit the family of an elderly man killed in a car crash involving his blue-light detail near Amsterdam in Mpumalanga. The crash occurred on Wednesday afternoon on the R33 near the Swaziland border. Authorities said it was a head-on collision between Mahlobo's back-up vehicle and a private vehicle.Media reports identified the dead man as Herman van Schalkwyk, but authorities could not confirm this. It was reported that the Amsterdam resident was on his way home to see his family for Christmas.Mahlobo said he did not wish to divulge details of the accident, saying that he preferred to allow police investigators to conclude their investigation. "He [the deceased] has been identified and we are planning to visit the family on Monday morning to express our condolences on behalf of my protector, myself and the government.story_article_left1"An accident is an accident and when this happens government has a duty to see the family and apologise, even if you were not in that particular vehicle. The department and the family will then issue a statement."Mpumalanga police spokesman Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said a case of culpable homicide was being investigated.About 600 people have been killed in almost 700 traffic accidents this month, the Road Traffic Management Corporation said yesterday. Two employees of the City of Cape Town's safety and security department died in a head-on collision with each other on Christmas Day.Bulalekile Ganta and Zindiswa Canca were driving home after work when the crash happened just before 7pm on Old Faure Road in Mfuleni.Three people were killed yesterday morning on the R74 in KwaZulu-Natal when the bakkie in which they were travelling overturned at Middelrus, provincial traffic officials said.Two BMW drivers spent Christmas Day in Free State jails after being caught driving at speeds of 195km/h and 162km/h in 120km/h zones.sub_head_start Around SA... sub_head_end• Eight Capetonians died in four fires in the early hours yesterday and nearly 200 people were left homeless. A woman and a five-year-old girl died in a shack fire in Elsie's River. Four adults and a child died in fires in Delft and Mfuleni.In Overcome Heights, Lavender Hill, a man died in a blaze that destroyed 13 structures.• A lifeguard rescued a 13-year-old girl who was found face down in the sea at Wilderness in the southern Cape on Christmas Day.Lifeguards and paramedics resuscitated the teen, who was admitted to hospital in stable condition.story_article_right2• Paramedics, the National Sea Rescue Institute, the Mountain Club of South Africa and Nelson Mandela Bay fire and rescue services worked together to save two dachshunds trapped in a collapsed tunnel at a quarry in Port Elizabeth.The dogs, Brody and Levi, bolted down a hole after a dassie while on a Christmas evening walk.• A second humpback whale carcass washed up on a beach in Cape Town in three days. The 9m young male was removed from Kommetjie beach by the city council's solid waste department yesterday after it beached on Christmas Day.Last Wednesday, a female humpback was removed from Strand beach. Authorities do not know why the animals died."Our speculation is that the female found in Strand died from old age," said Gregg Oelofse of the council's environmental resource management department."It was a fully grown adult and there were no signs of damage to the whale," he said...