Mass funeral under way for Centane bus crash victims

Published Mar 13, 2020

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Centane - Twenty-six coffins have arrived at the Cebe Junior Secondary School in Centane in the Eastern Cape for the funeral of the 26 people who died in a bus crash on March 2.

About 2 500 mourners are already inside the tent for the mass funeral.

The mass funeral for 26 victims of a bus crash is currently under way in Chebe Village in Centane. Picture: Bheki Radebe/African News Agency (ANA)

Eastern Cape Transport MEC Weziwe Tikana Gxothiwe and the deputy speaker for the Eastern Cape legislature Mlibo Qhobishiyane are among the mourners.

The bus involved in the fatal crash was contracted by the provincial government to service rural routes and was travelling from the coastal village of Chebe carrying people, mostly pensioners, to Butterworth for shopping via Centane town.

According to one of the survivors last week, the bus lost control near a cliff in Qolweni after a mechanical failure. 

Video: Bheki Radebe/African News Agency (ANA)

An operation manned by mostly local men to retrieve the bodies of the 26 people killed and the 72 injured in lasted for more than eight hours.

* This is a developing story

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