The bus was
travelling from Port Elizabeth to Harare with 68 adults, including three bus
crew members and 14 children when tragedy struck along the N1 highway.
Forty-three
people perished among them seven children while several others incurred various
injuries during the accident.
The Civil
Protection Unit (CPU) said a total of six families travelled in a Government
sponsored bus to assist with the identification processes of eight remaining
bodies in South Africa. The identification exercise is being carried out by
Zimbabwean and Malawian officials working closely with South African
authorities and bereaved families.
The Deputy
Director for Response and Coordination in the CPU, Veronica Bare, said they
expect the post-mortem on all the bodies to be completed by the end of day on
Friday.
“So far 20
postmortems have been successfully carried out and we expect the whole process
to be completed by the end of the day on Friday,” said Bare.
“We have
arranged a bus which has left with six family members to assist with the
identification of the remaining eight bodies in South Africa.
“With respect
to the seven minors, these will be identified through the Deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) and the process is already underway”.
She said the
physical identification of the bodies will begin on Monday once all the
post-mortems have been carried out.
Bare said the
Government is covering the accommodation and upkeep expenses for the bereaved
families during the identification process until the bodies are brought home
for burial.
She said
medical bills for all the affected Zimbabweans will be paid by the Government
at all the three hospitals in Limpopo province.
“We have
established two Command Centres at Beitbridge Border post and in Makhado to
coordinate all logistics around the disaster,” said Bare. She said Doves
Funeral Services has been engaged to ferry the remains of the deceased back
home once all post-mortem and documentation processes are complete. H Metro
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