It turned out to be a real blue Monday for the school children dressed in blue school uniforms as 14 scholars sat wounded next to the wreckage and one died on the scene.
The scholars were on their way to T.P Sililo Secondary School on Monday, February 10 at approximately 07:30 from Hlalanikahle.
For most of the scholars that travel to school everyday, public transport is their only mode of transport.
Once the driver of the white Toyota Quantum Mr Sidwell Mahlangu picked up all 15 scholars, he headed onto the N4 highway towards eMalahleni, where he would have dropped them off at the school.
Mahlangu alleged that he was driving when a Ford Ranger bakkie came too close to him; he tried to avoid the accident.
Allegedly Mahlangu applied brakes and that is when he lost control of his vehicle, then it rolled and came to a stop on the barrier.
The majority of the 14 scholars ended up on the other side of the barrier as they laid on the grassy part, injured and shell shocked. Many of the injured scholars knew that just on the other side of the vehicle was one of their fellow scholars, Bennedict Nkosi (13) who had died.
All the scholars and Mahlangu were treated for their injuries on scene and then taken to Witbank Provincial Hospital for further treatment and observation.
“Captain Nomsa Mtshweni and I are both “Adopt a cop” for T.P Sililo Secondary School. Just last week we attended a meeting for Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign at the school. Most of the parents’ concern was the safety of their children in the minibus that they use to get to school with. They complained about the noise that the minibus makes, the high speed that they travel at and behaviour of the children inside the minibus.
Then as “Adopt a cop” was concluded that we needed to get the traffic department involved, as most of the minibus drivers do not have a Public Drivers Permit (PDP), drivers licences and the owners are not aware that their drivers are transporting children,” said Constable David Ratau.
He continued to say; “that parents should make sure that the minibus they send their children to school in, is registered and have contact numbers for the owners.”
Mr Tibutsene Tenkosi a resident from eMalahleni was very upset about this accident as another child died.
“Every time when you see your child climbing into a school bus/taxi you should know he/she is driving in a coffin,” said Tenkosi.
According to Tenkosi; serious law enforcement must be provided by every caring resident to the lives of our kids. We can lose them any day when they are transported from point A to point B. Last week we had an accident when a driver had no driver’s licence and the vehicle was not roadworthy and where he rolled the vehicle.
Tenkosi continued to say; “Taxi drivers are spotted several times smoking drugs during working hours. Every body knows about it, even the kids themselves are aware of it. I have been driving 100km/h from Vosman to town on the N4 Road and taxis will overtake my speed at which I drive, that means they exceed even the speed limit. These taxi drivers are driving more than the expected speed whilst carrying passengers.”
Tenkosi concludes his conversation by saying; “What needs to be done? Every parent should be able to check the fitness of the driver, check validity of driver’s licence and passenger’s permit. Check the condition of the vehicle which is very important.” Ms Maria Khumalo, mother of Banelu Khumalo (13) who was involved in the accident on Monday, said; “she was very shocked and she cried a lot when she heard about the accident as she did not know what was happening or if her son was ok.”
Banelu was discharged from hospital but his body is still very sore from the accident.
Mr Fanie Nkosi, father of Bennedict had only goods words to say about his son.
“He was a good child, he was extremely friendly and he will be missed by everyone that knew him,” said Nkosi.
Nkosi continued to say that his son would have celebrated his 14th birthday on Thursday, February 13.
The Nkosi family were still deciding when Bennedict’s funeral would take place.
By the time the newspaper went to print, the school had not commented about the accident.
