Durban - More than a month has passed since the accident that claimed the lives of eight Fezokuhle Primary School pupils, and the families of the victims have yet to hear what caused it.
Parents of the victims, who spoke to the Daily News this week, said they were frustrated and disappointed with the police and the Department of Transport for not keeping them informed of the progress of the investigations, or the fate of the driver, Lungi Mthimkhulu.
Mthimkhulu, 33, who suffered serious injuries but has been discharged from hospital last month, has not been charged or arrested in connection with the accident.
The police’s Major Thulani Zwane confirmed that the investigation was continuing and could not say if or when Mthimkhulu would be charged.
Transport department spokesman, Kwanele Ncalane, said the accident was now the subject of a police investigation, and the role of the Transport Department was to monitor the inquiry’s progress.
“Once the investigations have been completed, the docket then goes to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will make the decision on whether to charge and prosecute the relevant party. It is not for the Transport Department to make that call. It is now out of our hands,” Ncalane said, adding that he empathised with the frustration of the families.
According to a well-placed police source, an expert’s report on the condition and roadworthiness of Mthimkhulu’s Toyota Hilux bakkie forms part of the docket, and will play a crucial role in determining whether she is charged.
The source confirmed that if the expert determined that the bakkie’s brakes had failed, and the cause of the accident was a “mechanical fault”, that would reduce Mthimkhulu’s blameworthiness, and she might avoid being charged at all.
Mthimkhulu was a well-known transporter of Fezokuhle Primary School pupils for more than five years.
The January 28 tragedy was the first accident she had been involved in.
Sibongiseni Dladla, the father of critically injured Wandile Dladla, 12, who suffered multiple fractures and internal bleeding, resulting in the removal of one of her kidneys, said he believed the families of the victims deserved closure.
“Immediately after the accident, government officials were all over us.
“A month down the line, it seems we are forgotten. We don’t want anything, except to be kept in the loop with the investigation,” he said.
Thabisile Shezi, whose daughter, 10-year-old Yolanda Shezi, was killed, said she had not heard from either the police or the Transport Department on what the outcome of the investigation was.
“I have lost my only child. I need to know what is going on,” Shezi said.
When asked how she would feel if Mthimkhulu was not charged, Shezi said she believed that whatever happened would be God’s will.
After the crash, the transport and education departments were given six months by the provincial cabinet to come up with a “policy proposal” on the use of bakkies to carry schoolchildren.
The issue was also included in Premier Senzo Mchunu’s State of the Province address in Pietermaritzburg last week.
The premier indicated that plans were under way to ban bakkies from transporting children to school, and that it was an area that required government’s “urgent attention”.
Daily News