adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
Relatives of Zimbabweans who died in a road accident in South Africa’s Limpopo province, have been notified but their names are yet to be released pending DNA tests.
Zimbabwe’s consular general to South Africa Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro yesterday said that they managed to contact the relatives of eight victims including the owner of the commuter omnibus they were travelling in when the accident occurred near Naboomspruit.
The ninth accident victim’s relatives are yet to be located. One person who survived the accident helped the authorities with information.
DNA tests have to be conducted to establish the true identity of the accident victims who were burnt beyond recognition when the vehicle they were travelling in caught fire following the accident.
“We’ve notified the relatives of the victims and the consulate has since deployed an official to Mokopane where he’s working with South African police and the Road Traffic Agency in the identification process. The identification of the bodies will take 14 days because there are DNA tests that need to be done to confirm the identity of the bodies,” said Mukonoweshuro.
He said everything including the victims’ passports and the passenger manifest were also burnt.
South African police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto said the DNA profiling is expected to take at least two weeks.
The nine Zimbabweans died early on Thursday morning when the commuter omnibus they were travelling in rammed into a stationary Zambian haulage truck along the N1 highway near Naboomspruit.
The kombi was coming from Musina with 10 passengers, heading towards Johannesburg when it collided with the truck and caught fire.
Online Reporter