Eastern Cape bus crash claims one life after ‘gear, brake failure’

A solitary bus accident in the Eastern Cape has tragically claimed one life and left nearly 10 others wounded.

The crash took place on the R61 road between Komani and Cofimvaba on Friday.

According to the Eastern Cape Department of Transport, the bus reportedly experienced a power failure while driving up on an upward slope en-route to a political event in Cofimvaba, located in the Chris Hani District Municipality.

It is suspected that the bus’s brakes stopped functioning when the accident occurred.

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“Eye witnesses are telling us that the bus was driving uphill and it was quite steep when the gears failed and the bus lost power. The brakes must have failed as well. It is another area our investigators are going to have to take a look at.

“So the bus reversed and rolled down that steep road until the driver lost control of it and hit the the side of the road. One person died in that incident,” provincial Transport Department’s spokesperson Unathi Binqose told The Citizen on Friday.

The eight people who sustained injuries were rushed to a hospital in Komani.

A culpable homicide case has since been opened for further investigations.

Limpopo bus crash

Last week, a bus accident on the Mmamatlakala Bridge, on the R518 road between Marken and Mokopane in the Waterberg district, killed 45 people after bursting into flames.

The bus was transporting people from Gaborone, Botswana, to Moria in Limpopo for the Easter weekend.

It is believed the driver lost control and veered off Mmamatlakala Bridge and crashed down the mountain pass.

The sole survivor of the crash, an eight-year-old girl, was taken for medical assistance and has been discharged from hospital.

READ MORE: Limpopo mourns deaths of ANC supporters in bus crash

On Tuesday, Health Minister Joe Phaahla confirmed there were eight identifiable bodies instead of the initial nine that was announced.

“We can confirm that of those bodies which are identifiable postmortems are being done. That will be completed and for those families, working with the government of Botswana, the details of repatriation will be finalised by the end of this week,” Phaahla said in a media briefing.

The minister lamented the fact that some bodies would be difficult to identify as they were burnt beyond recognition, saying the process would “take a lot of time”.

“We are still talking about relatives who are in another country where there must be arrangements, samples taken, subjected to testing, matching all those samples and the results of those DNA tests.”

Additional reporting by: Chulumanco Mahamba