Mamvura with her child.pic : bernard chiguvare The Zimbabweans who survived the crash that claimed 13 lives in Limpopo say the driver wa...
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| Mamvura with her child.pic : bernard chiguvare |
Survivors visited by GroundUp say the driver arrived early
in the morning after a long journey and set off again at once. Medusa Mamvura,
who was still wearing her bloodstained blouse when in Louis Trichardt Hospital
a day after the accident, says the crash could be a result of driver fatigue.
“We were supposed to leave Pretoria on Sunday (5 May) for
Zimbabwe but that was not the case. We had to spend the whole night waiting for
the bus until Monday morning. The bus arrived around 5am on Monday. The drivers
did not rest. We loaded our goods and off we left for Zimbabwe. We were not
happy going back with the same drivers and insisted on being refunded but that
fell on deaf ears,” said Mavura.
Her two-year-old child sitting next to her had bruises all
over her face.
Another survivor, Ruramai Torima, sitting in a wheelchair,
said: “At a weighbridge before Polokwane the driver was told the bus was
overloaded. We do not know what happened for us to pass overloaded like that.”
Chizivano Moyo, failing to hold back tears, said: “I lost
my wife and three stepchildren in this accident. I do not know what to do. At
the weighbridge near Polokwane we realised the bus was not in good condition.
The driver did some touch-ups [tightening exhaust nuts] on the bus and we
suspected something was not in condition.”
Moyo, does odd jobs in South Africa. His late wife was
employed as a domestic worker. They come from Masvingo. He
had bruises on his left arm and on the head.
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