4 April 2008
Maputo — 18 people died when a bus carrying Mozambican mineworkers from South Africa to Mozambique overturned and burst into flames on Thursday morning, near the South African border town of Komatipoort.
According to a release from the Mozambican Labour Ministry, the dead were two members of the bus crew, 12 Mozambican miners, two women, believed to be wives of miners, and two children.
The bus belonged to the South African company Vaal Maseru, which specializes in carrying migrant workers between the south African gold mines and their home countries.
40 other people on the bus were injured, some of them seriously. Jose Carimo, the representative in Mozambique of the mine recruitment company TEBA, said that those survivors who were fir enough to continue their journey were driven into Mozambique later n Thursday.
Some of the bodies have burnt beyond recognition, and can only be identified through DNA tests. Relatives of the victims have been requested to come to South Africa for purposes of this testing. The South African authorities home to identify all the bodies next Tuesday. Only then will the bodies be released, and can be taken back to Mozambique for the funerals.
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