Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Friday visited the family of a couple and their child who died in two separate but related road accidents on the N1 in Bela-Bela in Limpopo at the weekend.
Motsoaledi met relatives of 37-year-old Beauty Shoperia, her husband 44-year-old Paul Masunda and their one-year-old child Paul jnr.
The minister’s official vehicle was involved in the second of the two crashes on Saturday night.
Speaking to the media after meeting the family, Motsoaledi described the incident as devastating.
He said discussions with the family had centred on helping them with arrangements to repatriate the bodies to Zimbabwe for burial.
“The family needs repatriation and it so happened that, coincidentally, the certification and arrangements to repatriate people across borders are done by the department of health,” he said. “So we are going to see what arrangements we can do for them.”
Police previously said Masunda was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by an off-duty police officer on the N1. He was returning after accompanying Shoperia to catch a bus as she had planned to visit family in the neighbouring country.
Before the bus could depart, Shoperia was contacted by phone and told of the fatal accident.
She was attempting to cross the road with her one-year-old strapped to her back when they were struck by Motsoaledi’s official vehicle, which was being driven by a member of the SAPS Protection Security Services. Both were killed.
Motsoaledi said witnessing the incident had left him deeply shaken.
“It was very, very difficult,” he said.
“I was sitting in the back seat. I saw it looked like there was something in front of the car but before I could even think what it was, [there was a collision]. To discover that it was actually human beings, it was devastating.”
He said the accident happened at night and vehicles continued speeding past the scene afterwards.
Motsoaledi pushed back against reports of the vehicle as part of a “convoy”.
“I don’t drive in a convoy. It’s one car, an Audi, in which I have two protectors who are police officers.”
The minister stressed that questions concerning negligence or accountability would be handled by law enforcement authorities and not by his office.
“That’s a matter for police,” he said.
“I was sitting in the back of the car. In fact, when it happened, I had just woken up because I was dozing off.”
Police opened two culpable homicide cases. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has taken over the investigation because both drivers involved are SAPS members.
Motsoaledi said the police officers involved were receiving counselling.
“They are human beings. They didn’t just go out and say, ‘we want to kill people’.”
The minister said counselling had also been arranged for surviving family members, including Shoperia’s teenage son who reportedly witnessed the tragedy.
“We have called social workers to give counselling. It’s a very difficult thing, whether 14 years old or not. It’s difficult for everybody,” said the minister.
TimesLIVE
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