Men die 10 minutes after securing jobs

121212. Vereeniging Road (R82) near Southgate.The scene where two people died following an accident which a driver lost control of the bakkie because it was over-loaded building material. Picture: Dumisani Sibeko

121212. Vereeniging Road (R82) near Southgate.The scene where two people died following an accident which a driver lost control of the bakkie because it was over-loaded building material. Picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Published Dec 13, 2012

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Johannesburg - It was the first time since working as a tiler that Sergio Cossa is glad he didn’t get picked up by someone offering him a job.

Every day he hangs around CTM, the tile and sanitaryware retailer at Southgate, hoping that a home or construction owner would pick him.

On Wednesday, he didn’t get picked up, but four of his friends were, and in less than 10 minutes, two of them were lying dead on the M27 South after an accident.

Other passengers, including a female driver, were rushed to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.

Cossa claims the Isuzu bakkie, which had a yellow construction sign plastered at its rear end, was overloaded. The bakkie was carrying boxes of tiles and bags of cement when it hit a tree.

The cement was scattered everywhere at the scene of the accident. The two dead bodies lay on the road underneath a silver blanket.

The bakkie’s bonnet was open and its windows were shattered on impact.

The two passengers who died were flung out of the vehicle, which hit a tree on the far side of the road.

“At the workshop (referring to CTM) they told the lady not to speed because the bakkie was carrying too much,” said Cossa’s friend Jizito Mokhabelo.

Mokhabelo said they were called to the scene by one of the injured passengers, who told them they had been involved in an accident. They thought it was a joke until Cossa heard the background sound of sobs and screams.

Joburg metro police department spokesman Wayne Minnaar confirmed that the driver lost control and hit a tree.

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