1,000 mourners at church service for victims of KZN Easter tragedies

25 April 2019 - 13:24 By Orrin Singh
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A memorial service for the 13 victims of the Empangeni church collapse and the five people who died in a horror crash in Eshowe at the Easter weekend took place on April 25 2019.
A memorial service for the 13 victims of the Empangeni church collapse and the five people who died in a horror crash in Eshowe at the Easter weekend took place on April 25 2019.
Image: Jackie Clausen

More than a thousand people gathered at the Pentecostal Holiness Church in northern KwaZulu-Natal for a memorial service for 18 people who died in two separate Easter tragedies.  

Last Thursday night, 13 people - 12 woman and a 10-year-old boy - died and 16 others were injured when a wall collapsed at the Pentecostal Holiness Church, near Empangeni. 

TimesLIVE reported that more than 50 women had been asleep in the building following a church service on the eve of Good Friday. A violent storm swept through the area just after 10pm, collapsing the wall. 

Thousands of people attended the memorial service in Ndlangubo, northern KZN, on April 25, 2019.
Thousands of people attended the memorial service in Ndlangubo, northern KZN, on April 25, 2019.
Image: Jackie Clausen

On Good Friday, the area was struck by another tragedy, a fatal single-vehicle accident on the P240 Road in the Mkhunyana area, which killed five people.

According to Lucky Sibisi, of Kwazulu Private Ambulance, a bakkie transporting 11 people  collided with the road's guard rails several times, ejecting occupants from the vehicle.

A provincial contingency comprising KZN premier Willies Mchunu, labour minister Mildred Oliphant, MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nomusa Dube-Ncube, MEC for arts, culture, sport and recreation Bongi Sithole-Moloi, King Cetshwayo District mayor Ntombenhle Mkhulisi, Umhlathuze mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo and KZN director-general Dr Nonhlanhla Mkhize attended to support the grieving families. 

More than 70 people have been killed in devastating floods which have rocked South Africa's coastal city Durban. Rescue workers are still digging through collapsed buildings to find missing people.


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