After falling 50 meters to the bottom of a ravine, the bus caught fire
The only survivor of the accident was an 8-year-old girl, who was seriously injured. There are 45 victims, all Botswana pilgrims from a parish in the capital Gaborone, who were traveling to the city of Moria to spend the Easter holidays and attend a religious service in the Christian Zionist church of Saint Engenas. The bus they were traveling on crashed into a barrier, on a curve, falling about 50 meters from a bridge, ended up in a ravine and then caught fire. It happened last night in South Africa, in the north-eastern province of Limpopo, between the towns of Mokopane and Marken, about 300 kilometers north of Johannesburg. The causes of the accident are not yet known but, from initial investigations, it seems that the driver lost control of the vehicle.
Rescue operations continued throughout the night but the fire brigade teams found it difficult to reach and recover the bodies buried among the sheets of metal and scattered among the thick undergrowth and rocks. Many corpses are unrecognizable. The Minister of Transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga, went to the site of the disaster and said that the South African government will help repatriate the bodies and open an investigation into the causes of the accident which affected an entire religious community. President Cyril Ramaphosa also sent his condolences to Botswana and promised support.
The Easter pilgrimage to the Moria Zionist Church attracts hundreds of thousands of people from all over South Africa and neighboring countries every year. Christian Zionists recall the Jewish roots of their faith and use words taken from Israelite tradition in their rites, believing that when the prophecies are fulfilled, masses of Jews will accept Jesus as their messiah.
