President Cyril Ramaphosa
Photo: Sharon Seretlo/Getty Images
President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised that the government will help families whose loved ones were killed while returning from the ANC’s manifesto launch in KwaZulu-Natal during the weekend.
Ramaphosa visited the victims’ families in Mpumalanga on Monday to express his condolences after eight people died and several others were injured when a bus crashed near Dumbe, Paulpietersburg, in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Ramaphosa said he felt compelled to visit the families as the leader of the ANC whose supporters had travelled long distances to listen to the manifesto. As he spoke, one woman wailed uncontrollably.
He said the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal had provided assistance in transporting the victims of the accident to nearby hospitals.
“I want to thank the government in KZN and Mpumalanga and those in towns who assisted. I want to thank the minister of transport for having come to assist because her department is charged with reporting to us such cases.”
He said the Road Accident Fund had speedily investigated the cause of the accident to help the grieving families heal.
“Government departments will continue to work with those affected by this accident. Our social workers will also assist and those who work in hospitals will make sure that there is a follow up with those who are discharged but may still need to return to hospital,” Ramaphosa said, adding that a memorial service would be held for the deceased.
“Even when they are going to be buried, we will make sure that the ANC is there. We will make sure that when it’s time to bury them, the ANC will be there. We will make sure to carry the burden of those who will be buried. We will also make sure we support the families.”
He added that the government would also assist affected families through departments such as social development.
“They will check if there is counselling needed or any other needs. Government will make sure to follow up on all the family needs,” Ramaphosa said, urging the families to seek help from ANC provincial leaders if they had problems in contacting government departments.
Ramaphosa said the ANC should not shoulder the blame for the accident.
“We need to accept what God has done because it wasn’t the will of the president or the will of the provincial chairperson, the secretary of the province or the national executive committee,” he said, adding that investigations suggested that the bus was roadworthy and the driver had all the necessary documents.
“Let’s just support the investigation that will be done by the transport department at national level as well as provincial level and the municipal level.”
Road accidents have become synonymous with big ANC events in recent years. Earlier this year five people were killed in another bus accident while on their way to the ruling party’s birthday celebrations in Mpumalanga.
In 2016, 11 ANC volunteers died and 59 were injured when the bus they were travelling in left the road and rolled several times on the N1 highway between Ventersburg and Winburg in the Free State. The bus was carrying the volunteers home to Ekurhuleni in Gauteng after they had attended the launch of the party’s local government elections manifesto in Gqeberha.
On Monday, Ramaphosa said the party needed to do more to safeguard the lives of its supporters.
In another incident linked to the manifesto launch, four buses carrying ANC members from the Eastern Cape were blocked by protesting taxi associations on their way to the event in KwaZulu-Natal.
ANC Eastern Cape spokesperson Loyiso Magqashela said some buses from the Dr WB Rubusana region did not make it to Durban as a result of the impasse.
The Mail & Guardian understands that the taxi associations demanded money they said they were owed by the ANC. But Magqashela did not say why the buses were blocked, calling the actions by the taxi industry “a real sabotage”.
“The affected region which is Dr Rubusana has been directed to engage the taxi industry on this impasse and we expect the process to be expedited,” he said.