Two young people in the prime of their lives and a mother who had just secured a new job were among those mourned at a memorial service yesterday for the 13 people who were killed in a horror crash this week.
It is believed the accident happened after a truck allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed into three vehicles, including a taxi loaded with passengers coming from the Mpolweni area.
The truck driver, who fled the scene, is being sought by the police.
A prayer session, led by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Social Development Nonhlanhla Khoza, was held at the site of the accident yesterday.
It was followed by a memorial service in a sports ground in Mpolweni, north of Pietermaritzburg.
Thobani Ngubane, the brother of Siyakhula Gwamanda, 30, said he was at work when he received the call to rush home.
“When we arrived at the scene, we were told to go to the New Hanover mortuary. When we saw the extent of his injuries, we accepted that he could not have lived and we let him go as a family,” he said.
He said Gwamanda was just starting out in life as he had completed his tertiary studies and had been searching for a permanent job.
“We last spoke on Sunday and I posted his picture as a status on my WhatsApp. Posting pictures of people is not something I do and it turns out I was saying goodbye to him.
“I am going to miss the person he was, always laughing, never holding grudges,” Ngubane said.
Sibusiso Goge, the father of Nontando Goge, 22, said he was struggling to let go of his daughter.
“When I call out for one of my other children, I find myself calling out her name and then I remember. My wife and I are Christians so we pray and the pain subsides a bit.”
He said his daughter was on her way to apply for a place at the further education and training colleges in Pietermaritzburg when she was killed.
“She was a beautiful soul, always laughing. She is the only one of my children that I never had to ‘discipline’. To lose a child is something I doubt I will get over.”
Mlungisi Chamane spoke of how he drove by the site minutes after his high school sweetheart and partner of 16 years Jabulisile Khwela had died.
He said having to tell their three children of their mother’s death was painful.
“She normally leaves home at 6.45am in the morning and always takes the same taxi. On that day I left around 7.10am because I had to take a neighbour who was not well to hospital.
“When we reached the site of the accident, the road was already closed and we had to detour via a gravel road. Looking at the time she had left home and the accident, I just had a sense of dread that she might be involved. And when I learned of the taxi that was involved in the accident, I feared the worst because I knew she always took that taxi,” said Khwela.
He said when he finally managed to get to the scene, he found her new shoe and had to identify her body at the mortuary.
“Life was just starting to look up. She recently got a full-time job at the premier’s office and we had all these plans of things we wanted to do for our children.
“I had to tell my children that we are going to have to find a way to carry on without her,” he said.
The Mercury