At least 65 people killed after bus plunges into reservoir

AT least 65 people were killed when a bus plunged into a reservoir in South Africa’s central Free State province yesterday morning, the transport ministry confirmed.

"We've got a team at the accident scene that is reporting to us. The last number they gave us was between 65 and 70 bodies," transport spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya said.

"We are not quite sure how many people were on the bus. Initial reports said around 80, but we are waiting for a final report from our team later today." Ten survivors, some who had managed to crawl onto the roof of the bus as it lay submerged in the reservoir's waters, were taken to hospital.

The bus was transporting members of the country's largest trade union movement, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), from Northern Cape province to attend a May Day rally in Qwa Qwa, near Bethlehem. It appeared that the bus driver got lost and erred onto a gravel road leading straight into a reservoir at the Saulspoort dam outside Bethlehem, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of Johannesburg.

COSATU secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi expressed shock at the accident. The chairman of the 1.7 million-strong trade union, Willy Madisha, was on his way to the scene. "It is a devastating blow to COSATU and its entire membership. We will call a week of mourning. We are simply left speechless," Vavi said on SABC radio news.

South African President Thabo Mbeki observed a minute's silence and paid tribute to the victims at a May Day rally in Johannesburg, also attended by acting Transport Minister Jeff Radebe. "As an individual, I pray for them, as a nation, we continue to share our sympathy and sadness in this trying time," Radebe said. The bus crash is one of the worst in South Africa, where between 9,000 and 10,000 people are killed in road accidents every year.

In the mid-1980s, more than 40 children were killed when a school bus plunged into the Westdene dam in Johannesburg.

In 1999, a coach carrying British tourists crashed in Mpumalanga province, causing 27 deaths. A large number of road accidents involve buses and minibus taxis, whose drivers are notorious for dangerous habits.

On Wednesday, 13 people most of them children were killed on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast when two minibus taxis collided after the drivers played a "common game" where they "pretend to crash into each other at the last minute before returning to their lanes," transport spokesman Thabang Chiloane said.