Altogether 18 contractors of Nkomati Mine died in the collision between a truck and two Sprinter buses transporting more than 40 contractors to site.

All the people involved in the accident, except for the truck driver, were employed by Franki Africa.

The company is however owned by Keller in the United Kingdom and they have yet to issue a formal statement on the tragedy, with Franki Africa declining to go on record about the impact of the HR loss on its Nkomati operations.

Three of the 18 autopsies of the Badplaas Road victims still had to be done on Thursday before print.

Fifteen autopsies had already been performed before print. Eleven of the 18 crash victims still need to be formally identified by family members.

Eight of them had already been declared by family members, though they could not be formally identified without copies of their ID’s and other documents that were needed to attain a death certificate.

Only the bodies of three crash victims had not been claimed by any families yet.

Update + Video: 18 confirmed dead in Tuesday Badplaas Road slaughter

BREAKING NEWS: 14 killed, scores injured after truck and two Sprinters collide on the Badplaas Road

Nuusflits: 14 dood, tientalle beseer in gru botsing tussen trok en twee Sprinters op Badplaaspad

The provincial government has announced that a memorial service for the crash victims will be held today (Friday, July 7).

In a statement issued by the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, it was confirmed that six of the deceased are local Machadodorp residents.

The rest hail from KZN, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and the Freestate.

Of the 18, only one funeral had been held in Johannesburg in accordance with Muslim custom. None of the other bodies had been released by Thursday.

The department says that Government and Nkomati Mine will assist bereaving families with counselling, burial costs, transport services and other logistics.