Sandiso Phaliso
Moments before disaster struck, panic erupted inside the bus, as everyone began to realise their lives were in danger. Passengers stood up, screaming as the bus took off at a high speed down the hill in the Eastern Cape.
These were the first moments of a disaster which resulted in the deaths of 30 people on Monday. Zanele Sigonyela was one of the six survivors of the bus accident on Monday.
The 33-year-old said as the bus hurtled down the hill, everyone screamed helplessly at the driver to regain control. She held tightly onto another passenger who was sitting next to her.
“Before we knew it, the bus swerved off the road and rolled and started sliding down the hill. Everything just went blank for a few minutes,” Singonyela told Scrolla.Africa.
Through the darkness, she could hear people screaming from a distance.
“I woke up underneath a seat. I was feeling dizzy and confused. At first I did not realise the people were dead. I thought they were unconscious.”
She continued: “Minutes later, I could see they were dead, including the woman I was holding onto. Some were trapped inside the bus. I jumped out and suddenly could not hear the screams anymore.”
There was a sudden silence only filled by the noise of the bus’s engine.
“When the whole thing happened, I was dizzy. It was when the paramedics came that I realised this was tragic. Come to think of it, I am lucky to be alive.”
Sigonyela, who is a mother of two, said: “All I could think of were my children and family. With everyone who was sitting next to me on the bus dead.”
She knew that the bus, which was travelling from Cape Town to East London, was faulty from the start of the journey.
They had to stop three times when the bus struggled to move up steep hills.
At one point, Singonyela said the bus rolled back on its own and the driver had to use stones behind the wheels to stop it.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said the driver was among the dead. The bus was carrying 34 passengers, a driver and an assistant driver.
Kinana said police were investigating cases of culpable homicide.
