The Eastern Cape Department of Transport will hold a memorial service for the 20 Western Cape crash victims on Thursday, 24 November 2011 at the Fort Hare Sports Complex (Great Hall), in Alice at 09h00.
The victims, 17 of whom come from Alice and 3 from Sterkspruit passed away last week Tuesday when the minibuses they were travelling in were involved in a horror crash with a stationary truck crash on the N1 between Lainsburg and Beaufort West.
Relatives of the victims had to endure the painful journey of having to identify their next of kin and bringing them home at the Oudtshoorn Pathology laboratories, a process which according to Western Cape Provincial Health Spokeswoman Faiza Steyn was made even more heartbreaking as some of the victims were so badly disfigured they were not identifiable and some of the bodies were so bad that their autopsies could not be completed.
During an emotional prayer service that was held at Happy Rest hall in Alice last week, MEC Marawu promised that her department will finance the funeral costs for the 20 people who lost their lives.
She also added that the department had enlisted the services of Social Development and Road Accident Fund to help with counseling and road carnage claims respectively.
The owner of one of the taxis, Boni Bokwe also promised that compensation will be paid to the grief stricken families as the vehicle was insured with passenger liability so all the passengers that were injured or deceased will be covered by passenger liability and that he will communicate with the insurer to release the funds to the bereaved as soon as possible.
