An accident scene where 21 people died in N2 Pongola in the far north of KwaZulu-Natal. Supplied Picture
Durban - The heartbroken mother of a 12-year-old boy who was one of the victims of a head-on accident between a truck and a bakkie the N2 freeway in Pongola on Friday said she was still coming to terms with the fact that her only child was dead.
Visibly distraught, the woman got into a taxi in Inanda yesterday morning to travel to Pongola, hoping against hope that the news she had received the night before was not true. “I received a call on Friday evening from a neighbour informing me that there had been an accident that involved my son. “She shared pictures of the accident and I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was the same bakkie that my son took to and from school,” she said.
The woman, who works in Durban and asked not to be named as she still needed to consult her son’s father, said that her mother had also called her that afternoon telling her to return home the next morning. “I knew something was wrong because my mother knows that I am working here and I won’t be able to just leave unless it was an emergency. “I just wish this was a bad dream that I could wake from. “The reason I am in Durban and not with my son is so that I can provide for him. Everything is now pointless because he has been taken away from me,” she said.
Her son was among 19 other schoolchildren from Victorious Independent and Sakhumuzi Primary schools aged between 5 and 12 who were crammed into a bakkie that was transporting them home after school. The driver and a passenger in the bakkie were also killed, bringing the total number of fatalities to 21.
The truck driver, who apparently lost control of the truck and crashed into the bakkie, that was parked on the side of the road, has since handed himself over to the police. He will appear in the Pongola Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Police confirmed that a case of culpable homicide had been opened. The tragedy has yet again raised the issue of there being too many trucks on the freeway.
Adrian Chaning-Pearce, a local farmer in Pongola, said the issue of too many trucks using the road had been going on for years. “As residents, we are horrified. These were innocent school kids who were on their way home from school,” he said.
Chaning-Pearce said the problem stemmed from the increased demand for coal. “There has been huge destruction of the railway network and the (consequent) increased usage of the N2 to transport coal. We’ve gone from 1500 to over 5000 trucks using this route every day.
None of the law enforcement agencies are willing to solve this problem. We have asked the government, law enforcement agencies, and even politicians to get involved, but nothing really has been done,” he said.
He said it was only through social media that they were able to highlight the truck issues on the N2.
Sifiso Nyathi of the All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied South Africa expressed his condolences to the families affected by the accident. Nyathi said his organisation was concerned about the working conditions in the industry, and that it wanted the government to put a stop to reckless driving in this field, where employees prioritised increasing the number of loads they transported and covering more distance. He said the government and employers should enforce rest periods on employees, as this would eliminate most of the accidents that occurred on national roads.
He added that no decisive action had been taken against employers who employed people who were not eligible to drive trucks. Nyathi said the organisation would hold a protest in Pongola on Tuesday to express its dissatisfaction with companies hiring undocumented foreign nationals and employees who did not have the requisite driving licences and permits.
MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Sipho Hlomuka, confirmed the arrest of the truck driver and said this was important in assisting the families to deal with the devastation of the loss of their relatives. “We commend the police, who have had to activate all systems to make sure that the driver was pressured to surrender himself. We will be there to support the people of Pongola and the families during his court appearance on Monday,” he said.
MEC for Education in the province Mbali Frazer said the education community was in mourning. “We express our deepest sympathy to all of those who lost their loved ones. This is a very painful time,” said Frazer. Sifiso Sonjica, chairperson of the portfolio committee for education in KZN, conveyed her condolences to the parents, pupils and communities who had lost children at such a young age. “We need to engage the Department of Education more around the issue of proper learner transport, as we have learnt that the children were being transported in a bakkie. “We say this against the background of tight budgets and (limited) resources in the sector,” said Sonjica.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE