A bus carrying pilgrims fell off a bridge and caught fire on the mountain pass between Mokopane and Marken in the Limpopo province of South Africa. 45 people died. Only an eight-year-old girl survived.
According to the South African television station SABC, the accident occurred about 100 kilometers north of Pretoria. The driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle. The bus broke through the barrier, fell off the bridge and caught fire.
45 people died. Only the child survived the accident, an eight-year-old girl who was transported to hospital.
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, who went to the scene, expressed her condolences to the families affected by the tragic bus crash.
She said the South African government would conduct a full investigation into the causes of the accident.
The bus with pilgrims was traveling from Gaborone in Botswana to Moria near Pietersburg, where the largest gathering of Christians from all of Africa takes place on Easter. Moria is the headquarters of the Zion Christian Church, which has approximately 16 million members in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
For a week, South Africa has been preparing for increased traffic during the holiday season, assuming that over a million cars will appear on the roads leading to border crossings during this time. 400 additional officers were called in to ensure security.