DNA tests delay Bronkhorstspruit crash burials

24 April 2017 - 09:17 By KYLE COWAN
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The aftermath of the horrific road accident near Bronkhorstspruit when a truck and a taxi collided, killing 20 people, including 18 children. File photo
The aftermath of the horrific road accident near Bronkhorstspruit when a truck and a taxi collided, killing 20 people, including 18 children. File photo
Image: Alon Skuy

It will take at least a week before the families of the 20 people killed in a horrific minibus taxi crash near Bronkhorstspruit will be able to bury their loved ones.

The families of those killed - 18 of whom were schoolchildren - met Gauteng and Mpumalanga officials in Verena, which is close to the crash site, yesterday.

  • Road on which 20 died in horror minibus crash described as a ‘death trap’At a meeting between government officials and the families of those killed in Friday’s horror minibus crash in Verena near Bronkhorstspruit‚ the poor condition of the R25 on which the minibus was travelling was highlighted‚ with one witness describing it as a death trap.

The families, many of whom were too devastated to speak at the meeting, were told to arrive with their children's toothbrushes and combs so that authorities could identify the badly burnt bodies.

The minibus taxi the 18 children and two adults were travelling in collided head-on with a truck on the R25 on Friday afternoon. The taxi burst into flames.

  • Only one body from Bronkhorstspruit crash can be identifiedThe injuries sustained by the 20 victims who died in a horrific minibus crash near Bronkhorstspruit on Friday were so severe‚ only one person has been identified so far.

Seven children were rescued from the 22-seater vehicle, which was carrying 26 passengers.

Those who died were so badly burnt only one person has been positively identified.

The children, who live in the Verena area in Mpumalanga, were on their way home from two schools in Gauteng.

"I am told the DNA tests could take up to a week," said Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.

  • ‘The devil planned this’ school principal says of deadly school minibus crashThe principal of a primary school near Bronkhorstspruit says she has no idea how she is going to tell the learners of her school about their 14 classmates who died in a horrific minibus crash on Friday afternoon.

"But without this it would be very difficult to arrange funerals."

Many of the families at the meeting listened in blank silence, their eyes red with grief.

Seated on plastic chairs, they sat together in one section of the spacious hall, most of them hugging jackets to their bodies as they battled the chill.

Lesufi said the government would provide counselling for the families and for pupils who attended the Refano primary and Mahlenga secondary schools.

The Gauteng government would also pay for funeral arrangements, the MEC said.

"The injured pupils will also be supported in terms of future and current medical costs, counselling and schooling. This will be taken care of immediately to help them go back to school and move on from this," Lesufi said.

Lucia Xolo, the principal of Refano Primary School, said she was dreading school today.

"I don't have a clear idea of how to go about this. I think the best will be to visit every class and speak to the little ones," she said.

"I am feeling frustrated and confused. I cannot accept it."

Xolo said the pupils who diedwere some of her best and added that the "devil had planned it very well".

"Seeing those little bodies like that, I can't even explain."

Christina Tjiana, principal of Mahlenga Secondary School in Sokhulumi village, said the school lost four children - two in Grade 8, one in Grade 10 and another in Grade 11.

"It's like a dream. Maybe they will tell us it's not true," she said.

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