Sixty-three people had been confirmed dead by Thursday afternoon after the bus they were travelling in plunged into a dam near Bethlehem in the eastern Free State, according to African National Congress.
But the final death toll was expected to rise as police divers were searching for more victims in the late afternoon.
The fully-loaded bus was carrying about 90 Congress of SA Trade Union (Cosatu) members on their way to a Workers’ Day rally in Qwa Qwa early in the morning when the driver apparently lost his bearings in the dark, took a wrong turn and drove down a gravel road, eventually plunging the bus into the dam, police said.
Emergency workers and police workers who arrived at the scene shortly after the accident — estimated to have occurred at about 5am — managed to rescue 10 people who were taken to hospital.
At that stage only five bodies had been retrieved from the submerged bus, according to people on the scene.
Bethlehem emergency control officer, Theuns Kruger, said the spot where the bus had entered the dam was at the bottom of a slope normally used to launch boats.
He said emergency workers battled for hours before they were finally able to pull the bus, still containing many of the drowned victims, out of the dam.
A hospital spokesperson confirmed later that no other passengers from the bus, except for the 10 brought in for treatment early in the morning, had been brought to the hospital.
ANC Free State provincial chairperson Ace Magashule said most of the dead were members of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union, two were National Education and Allied Workers Union members and at least one was a Communication Workers Union member.
Cosatu president Willie Madisha, who was scheduled to speak at the Qwa Qwa stadium with the ANC’s Kgalame Mothlante and the SACP’s Blade Nzimande, went to the scene of the accident before continuing on to the rally.
Magushule said national government would now take charge of the accident because it was a ”disaster”.
Condolences and expressions of shock and regret have poured in from various government ministers, including President Thabo Mbeki who observed a minute’s silence and paid tribute to the victims, during a Workers’ Day address in Newtown, Johannesburg, on Thursday morning.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the union federation was ”devastated”.
”The Congress of South African of Trade Unions is devastated by the tragic accident near Bethlehem in the Free State, in which more than 60 workers, mainly members of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union, lost their lives.”
”On behalf of all its affiliates and members, Cosatu sends its deepest condolences to the families and comrades of those whose lives have been so tragically shortened. We send our best wishes to the ten survivors for a speedy and full recovery.”
Cosatu also announced official mourning, starting on Thursday ”until the funerals have taken place”.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon extended his condolences to the families of the many victims during a Worker’s Day rally in the North West and also telephoned Cosatu’s General-Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi to convey a personal message expressing his shock at the tragic events.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana issued a statement saying the death of the Cosatu workers had came as a shock to government.
”Workers who were going to celebrate this important day, should not have died in this manner,” Mdladlana said.
”As government, we send our deepest condolences to the families of the bereaved,” he added.
Acting transport minister Jeff Radebe also expressed his sympathy and extended his condolences to the families of the victims.
The Department of Transport’s Arrive Alive campaign on Thursday also extended its condolences to the families and friends of those killed.
”The department will be dispatching a team of investigators to the scene of the accident and a report will be made available as soon as possible,” said Arrive Alive’s Ntau Letebele in a statement.
Letebele added there had been 208 road fatalities over the long Easter weekend from April 17 to 21.
Since April 25, according to preliminary reports from the police, another 108 people have been killed on the country’s national roads bringing the total death toll on South Africa’s roads from April 17 to at least 316.
This accident was the third of its kind in 18 years.
In March 1985 42 high school pupils died when a Johannesburg municipal double-decker bus carrying the children home jumped the sidewalk and sank in the Westdene dam in western Johannesburg.
And in the mid-1990s a bus carrying some 90 forestry workers to work plunged into a dam near Lothair, near the Swaziland border in south-eastern Mpumalanga, claiming 38 lives.
In response to Thurday’s bus disaster the management of Peoples Bank announced it had established a relief fund into which it had donated R100 000 which was intended to assist the next of kin of those who died.
”Anyone wishing to make a donation to the fund could do so at any Peoples Bank from Friday. The banking details were: Workers’ Day relief Fund; Account number: 2947000013,” the bank said in a statement. – Sapa