A sombre atmosphere engulfed Hwange town yesterday when 11 bodies of members of the True Apostolic Mission church, who died in a horrific accident last Wednesday, were taken for burial in Binga.
news in depth BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
Clad in green and white uniforms, grief-stricken church members sang as bodies were being removed from the Hwange Colliery Hospital mortuary.
Inconsolable, they wailed uncontrollably as the bodies were being taken to waiting cars one by one and the mourners prepared for a long journey back home.
Inside one of the hospital’s wards, Nyamulayi Mudimba (87) was still trying to make sense of the events of that night when the haulage truck they were travelling in veered off the road, killing the 11 on the spot near Kamativi.
Another 119, including Mudimba, were seriously injured in the crash that prematurely ended the lives of three young children.
“I still can’t remember what happened but we were singing and the driver kept complaining about the steep roads,” said the old woman whose eye was blinded by the accident.
Her eye was still bleeding yesterday and she said she felt excruciating pain in the chest.
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She fell head-long when the truck plunged into the gorge and her face still bears the scars of that near-death fall. Like most of the victims admitted at the hospital, Mudimba cannot walk.
The grandmother said the church members who were travelling from a church conference in Harare had pooled their meagre resources to hire the truck, which she said was faulty.
“People did not have money so we hired a lorry that carried all the villagers at an affordable fare,” she said.
“We had spent the whole night travelling,” she said. “We were already behind time so people refused to disembark to allow the truck to easily negotiate the steep slopes.
“I lost a daughter in the accident but I will not be able to travel for her funeral.
“My left eye is bleeding up to now and I am smelling blood whenever I breathe. It’s hard to breathe because I am experiencing some sharp chest pains.”
Sharing the same ward as Mudimba was a woman who suffered a broken arm and leg. Yesterday she was still waiting for doctors to put a plaster on her arm and leg.
Her one-year-old son who suffered a broken spine and leg lay beside her and was visibly in pain. The woman cannot talk.
Several other survivors admitted at Hwange Colliery Hospital and St Patricks Hospital also told harrowing tales about the accident.
A nurse who was on duty during the visit to the Hwange Colliery Hospital said some victims were still in the intensive care unit as they suffered life-threatening injuries.
“None of them can walk and the challenge we have is that there are no specialists here,” she said on condition of anonymity.
“Many of them as you could see cannot speak, we fear that they are bleeding internally.
“We have some that are in a critical condition and they will be transported to Bulawayo anytime soon. Those ones are in a ward where they cannot be seen.”
A relative of the driver said two people from the same family had perished in the accident, including the driver.
“We still can’t believe this happened. He [driver] died together with his teenage son.
“The driver’s wife was heavily pregnant and she is also in a critical condition at Binga Hospital.
“We will be laying them to rest tomorrow [today] and things will never be the same again.”
The wreckage of the truck was still lying by the roadside yesterday, with clothing belonging to the victims scattered all over.
The church members were from Siabuwa, Nabusenga and Sinampande villages under Chief Sinampande.
A joint church service will be held in Binga today before the burials in the different villages.
Police last week said investigations were still underway to establish the cause of the accident, but indications were that the truck’s brakes were faulty.
The 10-tonne truck was also overloaded as it was carrying 130 people.
A number of deadly accidents have been recorded on Zimbabwe’s roads this year and police blame the high carnage on human error and poorly maintained vehicles.
The Zimbabwe Traffic Safety Council says 90% of road accidents are attributed to human error.
An estimated 1 700 people die on the country’s roads annually, while 30 000 are injured.
The road carnage has also been blamed on the country’s poorly maintained roads.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe needs billions of dollars to rehabilitate its road network that has deteriorated over the years due to neglect.
