A bus that fell off a high overpass and into a rocky ravine in South Africa, killing 45 people and leaving only an 8-year-old girl alive, was carrying Christian worshipers from neighboring Botswana on an annual pilgrimage. was.
Segametsi David, an elder at St. Engenas Zion Christian Church in the Botswana village of Molepolole, said the pilgrims had never previously traveled the route by car, which traversed the dangerous and winding mountain roads where the accident occurred. It is said that
“We cried last night,” said David, who was visiting the families of the victims in the village on Friday. “Right now, there are no tears. We're just trying to encourage people who have lost loved ones. But it's hard.”
Health officials in South Africa's northeastern Limpopo province, where the accident occurred, said on Friday that the surviving 8-year-old girl suffered minor injuries but was in stable condition.
The bus fell 165 feet from an overpass and crashed into a ravine, where it burst into flames. Officials said the driver also died.
Investigators recovered the bodies and continued to examine the wreckage to determine the cause of the crash. Officials said the driver lost control while making a sharp turn through a mountain pass on Mt Mamatlakala. Police are investigating the incident as a case of manslaughter, the statement said, without providing further details.
The surviving girl grew up in the church because her parents were very active and “passionate about God,” David said. David said she was traveling to South Africa with her grandmother.
Emergency responders found the girl outside the bus with minor lacerations to her arms, legs, head and back, said Thilibali Muaba, a spokesperson for Dr. Fofi Ramathuba, the official overseeing the Limpopo provincial health department. He said he discovered the.
Muaba said authorities have yet to determine how the girl, whose identity has not been released, was able to survive such a devastating crash.
“All we can say is we're glad she was found alive,” he said.
South African police confirmed on Friday that all 45 passengers and the driver of the bus were Botswana nationals heading to South Africa from the village of Molepolole, considered the gateway to the vast Kalahari Desert.
Police said 34 bodies had been recovered as of Friday afternoon. Of these, only nine were able to be identified; the rest were burnt and unrecognizable.
The tragedy cast a pall over Botswana, a largely Christian country of about 2.5 million people as it prepared to celebrate the Easter weekend.
Zion Christian Church is the largest denomination in Southern Africa. The annual Easter pilgrimage to the church's headquarters in Moria, South Africa, typically draws millions of visitors.
“This is a disaster,” Botswana's Foreign Minister Lemogang Kwape said. “We are very affected by what has happened, especially by people trying to enjoy themselves in the Lord.”
Kwape said he received a call from South Africa's Naledi Pandor updating him on the situation. He said the Church of Zion is not only Botswana's main religious denomination, but is also involved in community development, including building clinics.
Africa has historically had one of the highest road fatality rates in the world, according to data from the World Bank and the World Health Organization.