Pietermaritzburg - The mood was sombre at a Pietermaritzburg school on Thursday as children gathered to mourn the seven fellow pupils killed in Wednesday’s horror bakkie crash.
Fezokuhle Primary School pupils sang hymns as tears streamed down their faces.
The seven were packed with at least 15 others in an open bakkie that crashed into a house in Imbali on Wednesday.
A neighbour has told of how he is haunted by the children screaming moments before the crash.
Fifteen pupils were taken to hospital and seven were discharged on Wednesday night.
Some were seriously injured, and at least three are in a critical condition.
There were conflicting reports of the number of people in the bakkie, but the Education Department said there were 23 children, plus a driver, in the bakkie.
A Fezokuhle teacher, who declined to be named, said she had visited the injured children in Edendale Hospital on Wednesday night.
“Three of the children were so critically injured that I could not recognise their faces. I am heartbroken. I pray God keeps them in his healing hands,” she said.
The tragedy - just a week into the new school year - has sparked alarm and outrage.
It followed similar accidents in recent years, and happened despite the provincial government declaring the widespread practice of ferrying children in open bakkies illegal.
Six pupils died at the scene and a seventh died in hospital later.
The driver, a 32-year-old woman who has been doing the job for six years, is in a critical condition in the Greys Hospital ICU, her mother told the Daily News on Thursday morning.
Maria Mthimkhulu, the devastated mother, said she did not know if her daughter Lungi Mthimkhulu would survive.
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She cannot even talk. We don’t know if she is going to make it,” the visibly traumatised woman said.
Mthimkhulu was speaking at Fezokuhle Primary this morning where MECs Willies Mchunu and Peggy Nkonyeni met school staff, pupils and the community.
Mthimkhulu told the Daily News the Toyota bakkie was in “good condition” and the school transport business had been a family business that they had operated for the past 30 years.
Lungi had been transporting Fezokuhle Primary pupils for the past six years. This was her first accident.
“I don’t know why this happened,” a tearful Mthimkhulu said.
Zamokuhle Dlamini, who said she saw the crash while walking her child home from school, claimed the driver was speeding.
“These were such young innocent lives. This is a senseless tragedy that could have been avoided. That woman (the driver) must pay for her sins,” she said.
“The driver was going so fast and I saw the bakkie swaying and then I just heard screams and saw children flying off the bakkie. All I could do was just watch in horror. I can’t believe this has happened,” Dlamini said.
The homeowner, Sibusiso Ngobeni, said he could not believe what had happened. His wife, Lungile, could not compose herself and cried as she tried to talk.
“Our house is ruined, but worse than that, to know children died here, we cannot live with that,” she said.
A neighbour said they heard the children screaming as the bakkie took a sharp bend near the house.
“It seems the bakkie was out of control. The brakes may have failed on the vehicle. We don’t know, but the screams will live with me forever,” said Sizwe Kehla.
A ward councillor in Imbali, Garnet Mlete, said some of the children were from his constituency.
He said it was sad to see the families come to identify the lifeless bodies of the children which were strewn all over - some trapped in the house and some along the road.
Mlete said the parents were inconsolable.
A schoolteacher at Fezokuhle Primary, who requested anonymity, said:
“This is the worst tragedy in our school’s history - 2015 should not have started this way for us. We are stunned. I don’t even know how we are going to cope.”
The teacher said they had continually warned pupils not to travel in overloaded bakkies, but understood they had no other option.
“More needs to be done from the government’s side, as well as schools and parents and even traffic police. We all need to work together to monitor what happens to our children,” the teacher said.
A community spokesman at the assembly on Thursday, Samson Xulu, said they were devastated and called on the transport and education departments to find a solution to transporting children to and from school.
“We need help. Something must be done so that we don’t lose more children,” he said.
Mchunu said at a media briefing on Thursday morning that preliminary investigations were focusing on the mechanical failure of the bakkie.
“Suspicions at this juncture are that the accident was caused by brake failure, but this still has to be confirmed.”
Mchunu said the issue of pupil transport was a high priority with a policy in the process of being implemented.
“This is an issue that we are constantly troubled by. People sometimes use bakkies to transport children because they have no other choice. But overloading is a serious offence.
“If people are using bakkies they must make sure the necessary infrastructure is in place to protect their passengers,” he said.
The department would assist the bereaved families with funeral arrangements.
Mchunu had declared in August 2012 he would bring a stop to children being ferried in bakkies after 11 pupils died on the R612 near Ixopo.
But in May last year, five pupils were killed when a van carrying 29 pupils plunged into a sludge dam on the D532 road near Mooi River.
Road traffic expert, Mark Winters, said unless the government actively monitored the transportation of pupils, there would be more tragedies.
Earlier, Mchunu said it appeared the bakkie driver had lost control of the vehicle, causing it to crash.
“It is unfortunate that we have to learn of yet another loss of young lives,” he said.
Mchunu said he was shocked the bakkie was so overloaded.
KZN Emergency Medical Services spokesman, Robert McKenzie, said the bakkie almost landed inside the house.
Msunduzi Fire and Emergency Services’ spokesman, Essack Khan, said the bakkie had no canopy.
Arrangements are being made for KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu to visit the crash site and the families concerned.
Daily News