Nzimande slams road death toll at students’ memorial

"It is sad that one is standing in front here in this Great Hall not for graduation but mourning young people who have prematurely departed‚” said higher education minister Blade Nzimande on Friday.

He told the mourners at the memorial service for seven Wits University students killed on May Day that the loss of lives and limb on the country’s road was unacceptable.

Thirteen students were travelling to Polokwane for a church pilgrimage when their minibus taxi crashed near Mokopane‚ Limpopo. Seven died on the side of the road and six were taken to hospital. Most were members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) Students’ Society on Wits campus.

South Africa has one of the highest death tolls at 25 deaths per 100 000‚ Nzimande said‚ adding that a road safety strategy for 2016/2020 was being implemented.

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“The best way we can honour and remember these young lions who perished on our roads is to take up this challenge of making road crashes history‚” he said. “I am especially calling upon our youth to use their energy to join the government in the campaign to make road crashes history.”

Earlier‚ the families had risen one by one as the names of the dead were read out by vice-chancellor Adam Habib.

Letlhogonolo Mosime (21). Nakedi Boloka (21). Faranani Masiagwala (18). Matildah Lekhema (20). Livhuwani Matibe (19). Sipho Makhabane (24). Dakalo Mulima (24).

They had been studying mechanical engineering‚ education‚ medicine‚ law and actuarial science.

“Families were looking forward to contribution they [would have made] to their stability‚ economically and otherwise‚” said Nzimande. “It’s painful to you but it’s not your lost alone but the entire country. We are double hurt when it’s our young people who were studying in areas our country desperately needs.”

He thanked Habib and the Wits community for the way they worked with the families of the injured and the dead.

Habib asked everyone to keep the families of the deceased in their prayers.

A woman wept and had to be supported as she made her way through the Great Hall.

– TMG Digital