40 years on, survivors look back at the Westdene bus disaster

It has been 40 years since that fateful day, which saw 42 children die in an event declared a national disaster by the government at the time, the Westdene bus disaster.

On March 27, 1985, a bus transporting Vorentoe High School learners was taking its usual route through the suburbs, when, while driving along Lewes Road, it crashed through the fence and plummeted into the dam.

Read more: Westdene bus tragedy 40 years on and never forgotten

Though 30 children would thankfully find safety, 42 would never make it home that day, to sleep in their beds, lulled by the protection their families would effortlessly give. Since then, each of these families lives have irrevocably been changed, and left with, not only the joy of the memories each child left with them, but the vivid memory of the day they died so helplessly.

Albertus Ouwenkamp was a Standard 6 (Grade 8) learner at the school. He loved insects, so much so that he would often use a microscope to get a closer look at them just so he could understand them better. He loved to dance and play the piano and found that one of the best people to spend time doing what he loves with was his sister, Linda. She was at the memorial site at the Westdene Dam where, even though a lot had changed about the venue, the memories were clear. A Laerskool Generaal Christiaan De Wet Primary learner at the time, she stood waiting for her bus home when one of her schoolmates shouted to a group of them that the bus had gone into the dam.

“When I got home, my uncle asked if I knew where my brother was. I answered, saying I did not know he was not home yet.” She and her grandmother would eventually head to the site, while trying to get hold of her mother. “My mom came to my grandmother’s house later, and we started to look for my brother,” she said in tears. They tried to go look at the crash site, but, because of all the bodies that laid there, they were dissuaded. Her mother went to all the hospitals in the area, but to no avail. In the end, her mother and grandfather ventured to the mortuary, and as soon as they walked in she recognised her son by his toes. “Mom still has a hard time accepting it, and she doesn’t want to talk about it.” It is just as hard for Linda, whose memories of her brother are vivid and strong, much like the pain that has remained within her all these years.

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Louise Daniel laid a bouquet of yellow flowers on the headstone, doing so in memory of two of her best friends who were claimed in the disaster. It was the first time in 40 years that she made her way to the dam. She was walking home to Auckland Park on the day she heard, and saw, all the ambulances rushing to the scene. She said, as she sobbed, 40 years later and it is still just as painful. She reflected on the days at school following the harrowing event, and how absolutely somber it was. She noted the eerie silence that filled the whole school. “Can you imagine a school full of children, and it being so silent? Not a word. Nothing. It was so deathly quite. With roses on their desks.” She said, it’s a devastating loss when a school loses 42 children.

On that Wednesday afternoon, all those years ago, Frikkie Boetes was making his way back home when he saw the bus still in the water. He recalled how his friend dove into the dam, broke a bus window and took out three children. This heroic act saw him endure a cut foot.

Boetes says, once a month he goes to the dam, helping clear it of overgrown weeds and rubbish. On the eve of the anniversary he went with his garden equipment to clear the memorial site of the weeds and rubbish. He also took the time to place white rocks, in the form of the number 40. On that fateful day he was one of the onlookers, completely shocked at the scene that unfolded right in front of their eyes. “It was a complete shock, we had never had something of this magnitude happen in the suburb. All we could do was just stand and watch.” He said, this event was something that would stay with those affected for the rest of their lives, and all they can do, is be strong through the pain.

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