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

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. 

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.