Several people who lost relatives in the Muldersvlei train accident were able to begin planning their futures on Tuesday morning after being told details of Metrorail's compensation plan.
Jennifer Ruiters was among five men and women who raised their hands when claims manager Markus Strydom asked about 70 people attending the briefing at the Vereenigde Gereformeerde Kerk hall in Wellington to indicate if they had lost a relative in the collision between Spoornet goods trucks and a Metrorail passenger train on January 7.
Ruiters's son Patrick, 21, was one of 10 people who died in the peak-hour smash.
"He was the family's only breadwinner," she said.
Like Ruiters, the families of several other people who died at Muldersvlei have had to deal not only with the loss of a loved one but also with the anxiety of facing an uncertain financial future.
On Tuesday, they were told they would be compensated for the income their late relatives would have earned, but not for the emotional suffering brought about by their deaths.
Willem Louw of the claims committee, composed of representatives of the South African Rail Commuter Corporation and South African Claims Managers, said people who had lost income since the accident would be compensated at the end of the month.
"People just need to produce proof of the income they have lost over the period and we will compensate them - whether for days off work because of their injuries or because they were looking after someone who was injured."
Louw said he was unable to guess how long it would take to wrap up the settlements or what the total would be.
He has played a part in arranging compensation for people affected by "10 or 11" train accidents, including the horror smash in Durban in 2001 that left 28 people dead.
South African Claim Managers representatives are working to process compensation claims for Metrorail insurers Lloyd's of London.
The claims committee and Apollis Williamse, a community leader in Wellington, spent several hours explaining the claims procedures to people at the meeting.
People with grounds to claim compensation have made appointments to meet claims managers in mid-February for assessments of their cases.
Some people expressed concern that because their legal knowledge was limited, they would be unable to evaluate the fairness of their compensation payments.
Strydom told the crowd that people seeking compensation could choose to work through attorneys instead of accepting the compensation offered by Metrorail.
"We don't want anyone to feel rushed or bullied by this process," he said.
"People are welcome to work through attorneys if they wish to."
The venue for Tuesday's briefing had been advertised as the Huguenot station in Paarl, but the meeting was later moved to the church hall because a large number of people was expected to turn up.