Lungani Zungu
Moments before a speeding truck on the N2 on Friday collided with a bakkie carrying 19 schoolchildren, it almost wiped out the speaker of the Pongola Local Municipality.
Kwenzakakufani Nxumalo thanked his ancestors and told Scrolla.Africa that if it weren’t for his driver’s prolific driving skills he would be dead.
“All of us in the car would have died. I am still shaken from what I went through on Friday,” said Nxumalo.
They were driving on the N2 between Pongola and Itshelejuba, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, when the truck came out of nowhere behind them at high speed.
“My driver swerved to the side, giving the truck a way [passed] because we could see that the driver was not prepared to slow down.”
Nxumalo said if the driver had not swiftly swerved the car, the truck would have rammed into the back of their vehicle.
After his near-death incident, Nxumalo told his driver that the truck driver would cause an accident.
Moments later, he watched his fears unfold before him, as the truck collided head-on with a bakkie, leaving 19 primary school children, one teacher and the driver dead.
The chilling scene of dead children strewn on the N2 haunts Nxumalo.
“That is one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to see in my life. That picture keeps playing in my head.”
He was among the first to arrive at the aftermath of the horrific scene.
The children were from the Victoria Independent School, Buhlebuzile Primary, Sakhumuzi Primary School and Thembokuhle Primary. They were all between Grade R to Grade 7 – aged between five and 12.
“Just seeing the children lying there, full of blood, was painful. No parent deserves to go through what the parents of the deceased children are going through.”
Nxumalo said the road where the incident happened is a death trap as motorists, especially truck drivers, regularly and brazenly ignored the rules of the road.
Scrolla.Africa understands the families of the victims would only be identifying the bodies of their loved ones on Wednesday.
The truck driver will appear at the Pongola Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
