Families have been struggling to identify their loved ones as authorities try to make sure that everyone involved in a tragic bus crash on Monday evening in the Kei Cuttings on the N2 between Butterworth and East London was accounted for.

Most of the victims were on their way home from Cape Town – some for a break, some to get documents for a job, some to attend funerals.

Now most of those passengers are dead. The death toll had risen to 30 by Tuesday evening.

A number of children were killed and injured in the accident, resulting in first responders, including emergency medical personnel, traffic officers and the police, receiving counselling on Tuesday.

At least 20 of those who died were women and three were children.

An employee at the state mortuary in East London, Shanks Maharaj, said on Tuesday that families have not been able to identify all the bodies recovered from the scene.

Woodbrook mortuary manager Shanks Maharaj speaking with family members in East London. (Photo: Mark Andrews)

“So far we have 30 people who died. Twelve have been identified. We are waiting for family members to identify the remaining 18. We have not been able to identify everyone. We are waiting for a list from the bus company to try to establish the number of people who were on the bus.

“Some people were very badly hurt,” Maharaj said. “They are not identifiable. We will have to use things like jewellery, marks on their bodies, tattoos, things like that.”

A family member of one of the victims collects personal items from a pile of belongings. Thirty people are said to have lost their lives after a crash in the notorious Kei Cuttings in the Eastern Cape on Monday. (Photo: Mark Andrews)

As families gathered at the mortuary on Tuesday, many were unable to control their emotions and tears flowed freely. Relatives of the deceased were coming in from Qumbu, Elliotdale, Mthatha and some of the smaller villages in the OR Tambo region.

Two young women, Thulisile Mdolomba from Khubusi in Qumbu and 21-year-old Sivuyisiwe Majambe, originally from Hobeni in Elliotdale, were among the deceased identified by their families yesterday. Bayethe Mzimkhulu from Qumbu said it was not easy to identify their relative, Thulisile.

“We were here to identify my cousin but it was difficult… her face is badly damaged. We only managed to identify her clothes but we are still waiting for more family members to confirm that it is her. At this moment it’s not easy to say this is her body.

“But we managed to find some of her clothes here which confirms that she is probably one of the deceased… for now we will wait for more family members to confirm that it is her,” Mzimkhulu said.

Mzimkhulu said Thulisile was working in Cape Town and was on her way home for a holiday.

“It’s painful to lose your loved one in this manner… the government needs to hold the bus owners accountable for this reckless driving.”

Nokholekile Majambe, the mother of Sivuyisiwe, said her daughter was a contract worker at Shoprite in Cape Town.

“My daughter asked for special leave for about a week to collect some of her documents in Mthatha, but now this accident happened.”

She added to the call that the bus company be held to account.

“Sivuyisiwe called me in the afternoon on Monday at around 12:00 complaining that the bus was delayed and experiencing problems. She said it was not going to arrive early. To me this means the bus was not in a good condition to transport people. We want them to answer for their deeds.”

There were several reports that passengers saw black smoke coming out of the bus throughout the journey.

On Tuesday, investigators retrieved the wreckage of the bus.

Unclaimed luggage salvaged from the accident scene was stacked outside the mortuary for families to see if they could identify their loved ones’ belongings – many were looking for handbags.

A spokesperson for the Eastern Cape’s emergency medical services, Kidwell Matshotyana, said the cause of the accident had not yet been established but it appeared as if the bus had failed to negotiate a bend on the winding road and rolled down a 200m embankment. The driver, whose name has not been released yet, also died in the accident, authorities confirmed.

Matshotyana said teams from East London and the ambulance base in Butterworth had been deployed, and another team was on standby in Mthatha, adding that their jobs were made more difficult as it was already dark when the accident happened.

“So far we know, there are 28 dead. Another nine are in hospital. Two are in the intensive care unit. One is a 50-year-old man and the other a child between one and two years old. Many of the injured had cracked ribs and broken legs.”

He said another 24 passengers suffered slight injuries and were treated and discharged.

“This was a very difficult scene,” Matshotyana said. “We are still not sure how many people were on the bus. We organised for the first responders to get debriefing today (Tuesday),” he said. DM/MC