Regret, shock, sympathy and condolences for the families of the estimated 80 people feared dead in a bus accident were expressed by President Thabo Mbeki and acting transport minister Jeff Radebe.
The bus plunged into the Saulspoort Dam outside Bethlehem in the Eastern Free State on Thursday morning.
Mbeki, addressing a Workers Day rally in Newtown, Johannesburg, observed a minute’s silence and paid tribute to the victims, said to be members of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union, travelling to a Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) Labour Day rally in Qwa Qwa.
Radebe expressed his greatest shock and sadness on the accident and said his heart went out to families and relatives of all victims of this tragic accident.
”As an individual I pray for them, as a nation we continue to share our sympathy and sadness in this trying time.”
Radebe added that his department was interacting with the Cosatu leaders and victims’ family and said a team from the provincial department of transport was also busy at the scene of the accident.
Meanwhile, Bethlehem emergency service members were still battling to extract the bodies of the dead.
A spokesperson, Theuns Kruger, said police divers had noted ”many” bodies trapped in the submerged bus, but could not put a number to the dead. Officials fear up to 80 people died in the early morning crash.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the union federation’s president Willie Madisha was on his way to the scene.
”The 10 survivors spoken of this morning seem likely to be the only ones. It doesn’t look good,” Craven said.
”It looks like there are more than 70 dead.”
He had just spoken to SA Transport and Allied Workers Union general secretary Randall Howard, who was at the accident scene.
Kruger said rescuers were battling to hook a tow vehicle to the bus as there was little on the submerged vehicle on which to attach a line.
”I do know rubber ducks are being used to try attach the bus, but they don’t want to try and move the bus with it being properly hooked up as there could be people trapped under the bus.”
Kruger, who is in the control room of the emergency centre in Bethlehem, said information was sketchy as the area where the bus went in was on quite a steep slope into the dam where boats are normally launched and cellphone signal was very poor.
”It’s almost impossible to get hold of anyone at the scene right now to find out how many bodies have been recovered or any other information.” – Sapa