01/01/2021
WEDDING TURNS SOUR AS THREE PEOPLE DIE IN ACCIDENT
By Gabz 24 Reporter
Three people traveling to Kang from the first leg of a wedding ceremony held in Otse died on the spot in the Ranaka village area on Sunday afternoon after the vehicle they were traveling in overturned following a tyre burst.
Among the traveling party of eight people was the bride who sustained injuries on her right leg. It is understood that there was to be the second leg of the wedding on Monday in Kang where elders and other people preparing for the day were happily waiting.
Eye witness account suggests that the red Toyota Venture was traveling at a moderate speed of around 90 kilometers per hour when the accident occurred. A lady who was first on the accident scene told GABS 24 that the accident happened shortly after the Toyota Venture overtook them.
“Our van was going at the speed of 80 kilometers per hour and the Toyota Venture wasn’t really moving at any high speed either when it went past us. Shortly after overtaking our car, we saw a cloud of dust which forced us to come to a halt because one couldn’t see anything ahead. When the dust subsided, the sad reality was revealed right in front of us,” said the eye witness lady who declined to share her names.
Another eye witness - an elderly man who was hitch-hiking a few meters ahead of where the accident occurred - said after hearing the loud boom from the bursting tyre, he saw the Toyota Venture move a short distance along the road as if the driver was in full control, but then suddenly it took a sharp swerve to the right and rolled twice, spitting some of the passengers in the process.
“When I saw items flying out of the rolling vehicle, I thought they were bags, only to realize when the vehicle had come to a halt that the ‘bags’ were actually some of the passengers,” narrated the seemingly disturbed man.
Onlookers who had converged at the scene minutes just before 4 o’clock that afternoon expressed anger and deep concern at the slow reaction from emergency services. The accident took place about five kilometres south of Ranaka and the first road users to stop at the scene said they immediately called the police and then 997, the government emergency number, which they say for the entire time they kept calling, was never answered.
"The police from Kanye were the first to arrive, but close to an hour later. They came in two separate vehicles, a small Bantum bakkie and a landcruiser which were used to help carry the injured and the deceased to the hospital in Kanye," another bystander told GABZ 24.
Little help was offered by the multitudes of people who thronged the accident scene. Some stood there and watched either with folded arms or held-out mobile phone cameras as the police kept begging for some working space.
According to one Mma Mashaba, Kanye Seventh Day Adventist Hospital’s Chief Registered Nurse who responded to this publication's telephone inquiry, the injured were still hospitalized even at the time of writing this story. She did confirm the three deaths and said two of the injured were immediately referred to Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone. The other three, among them the bride, were in stable condition at the hospital in Kanye.
Efforts to get through to the Kanye Police failed after several attempts. However, speaking from Botswana Police Service headquarters in Gaborone the following day, police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Dipheko Motube confirmed the accident, saying he was yet to receive the full brief as investigations into the accident were still underway. The deceased were 52 and 56-year-old women, both from Otse, while the other was a 68-year-old man from Mogobane. This publication can safely confirm that the Monday wedding ceremony scheduled for Kang was eventually called off.
