The MEC for Transport and Community Safety, Violet Mathye, has expressed concern over cross-border public transport vehicles involved in road incidents on the province’s roads.

Her concern follows after five people were killed when a cross-border bus overturned on the N1 north near the Nyl Plaza, outside Mokopane, yesterday afternoon.

This is the second incident to take place in less than five days, after 10 Zimbabweans were killed when the bus they were travelling in overturned on the N1 near Makhado last Tuesday.

Transport spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene says the bus was travelling from Johannesburg to Zimbabwe when the incident occurred and left a man and four woman dead.

“Scores of passengers sustained injuries of varying degrees in the process and have been taken to hospitals in Mokopane,” Chuene adds.

Mathye has called on cross-border public transport bus companies to ensure that their drivers are ‘fit for purpose’, as fatigue could possibly have been a cause in this crash.

6 MK Party supporters die in taxi crash

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, The Witness reports that six members of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party were killed while travelling from Estcourt to Nkandla.

The taxi they were in apparently experienced brake failure in Ntunjambili, overturned, and caught fire, trapping the six women inside.

Read the full story on The Witness.