NELSPRUIT – In a dramatic turn of events, the bus driver accused of the murder of five people and charged with 62 counts of attempted murder fired his Legal Aid representative and hired a private lawyer to represent him.
This was heard at the Nelspruit High Court on Monday where the matter was postponed to Feberuary 24.
“We are waiting for transcriptions and the provisional date was set to be February 24 next year,” said state prosecutor Ms Dorah Ngobeni.
The matter was last heard at Nelspruit High Court where the accused Mr Goodboy Ngomane (41) couldn’t attend to his court hearings due to a stress-related sickness.
In July 2010, Ngomane from Mahushu was hired to transport Grade 4 learners of Khokhobela Primary School from Mala to Pretoria on a school trip.
On their return, Ngomane’s bus was involved in an accident with a train while he was crossing over a railway line.
Three learners and one teacher were killed on the spot while others sustained serious injuries. Mr Sydney Mathebula, a teacher from the school testified in court that he and the deceased teacher organised the educational trip to the Zoological Garden and the Union Building.
He said their plan was for the learners to leave Pretoria around midnight so they could be at the school around 05:00 in the following morning.
However they were compelled to change their plan as the driver decided to leave early.
“Things didn’t go as planned as the driver told us that he didn’t have a bath the previous night and needed to get back home to his wife. As a result we left Pretoria by 20:00,” he said.
He continued to testify that from Pretoria, the driver went to the bus’ owner’s place in Mahushu and came out mumbling and grumbling about his tiredness.
“By the time we reached the police station we pleaded with him to take one teacher to Rolle village because it was still very dark for her to go on her own,”
Mathebula testified that Ngomane stopped the bus and told them that he was not hired to take individuals to their homes and was not prepared to drive on a dusty road.
“We explained to him that we gave him reasons why we had planned to leave Pretoria late but due to the circumstances we had to use the dust road,” he said.
This according to Mathebula happened between 02:15 to 02:20. He said after negotiations the driver agreed to drop the teacher at the said place.
He said as they were crossing the railway the bus collided with the train.
Mathebula told the court that the Ngomane was not found at his seat after the accident and had not seen him ever since that day.
