The coal truck driver accused of murdering 20 people when his truck smashed into a vehicle carrying 18 schoolchildren and two adults will stand trial from Monday April 16 when families of the victims are expected to pack into the public gallery.
The case is being heard in the high court, sitting in Pongola, by acting judge Garth Davis.
During the trial, which has been set down for four weeks, it is expected evidence will be led from witnesses who saw the truck speeding, out of control, for more than a kilometre, down a pass, often on the wrong side of the road.
There will also be video evidence and at least one parent of one of the children who died will testify.
According to the indictment, Sibusiso Siyaya, 28, from Jozini, is charged with 20 counts of murder, a count of reckless and negligent driving and failure to perform the duties of a driver after an accident.
The children killed were between the ages of five and 14. One mother lost three children in the accident. The 19-year-old driver of the vehicle, Lekthukuthula Nkonyana, was unlicensed. An assistant teacher Zinhle Mkhize, 28, was also killed.
It is alleged that Siyaya was employed as a heavy duty driver by BaoBao Projects, a company that transported coal from Mpumalanga to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal for export.
Before being employed, he passed a compulsory medical examination and presented a proper licence and public driver's permit.
His route took him on the N2 via the Itshelejuba Pass in Pongola.
On September 16 2022, he was driving a two-sided tipper trailer, weighed down with about 34 tonnes of coal.
En route to Richards Bay, he experienced a mechanical fault with his rear trailer brake which he had attended to in Piet Retief.
But before descending the pass, he ignored a mandatory stop for heavy motor vehicles where he should have engaged low gear.
It is alleged he drove recklessly down the pass, overtaking vehicles and often driving on the wrong side of the road into incoming traffic which had to swerve to avoid him before he slammed head-on into the Toyota light delivery vehicle, carrying the children, their teacher and the driver.
Autopsies revealed they all died of blunt force injuries.
Siyaya was initially charged with culpable homicide, but late last year the state announced he would face murder charges.
KwaZulu-Natal director of public prosecutions Elaine Harrison said this was after in-depth deliberations on the evidence in the docket.
Siyaya, who initially fled the scene, handed himself over to police. He has been in custody ever since, having abandoned his application for bail.
