News24 | Vaal horror crash: Scholar taxi driver charged

The driver of the scholar taxi involved in Monday’s Vaal horror crash has been charged with culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving.

• The driver of the scholar taxi involved in Monday’s Vaal horror crash has been charged with culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving.
• Gauteng police said he would appear in court within the next 48 hours.
• On Tuesday, government officials visited Hoërskool Vanderbijlpark, where some of the children who died were pupils.

The driver of the scholar taxi that was involved in the horror crash in the Vaal that left 12 children dead on Monday, has been charged with culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving.

Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo on Tuesday said that the 22-year-old was arrested after he was discharged from hospital.

“He is expected to appear before the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court within 48 hours,” Masodo said.

“Investigations are under way as police continue to obtain witness statements.”

In the meantime, government officials visited Hoërskool Vanderbijlpark – where some of the children who died were pupils – on Tuesday morning. Other affected schools include Vaal High School, Oakwood Primary School, Vaal Triangle Primary School, Oliver Lodge Primary School, and Elshaddai Christian School.

The death toll of the crash – which saw the taxi plough into a truck at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Vanderbijlpark – was put at 13 on Monday, but officials on Tuesday confirmed that it had since been revised to 12.

They also provided an update on identification efforts, saying all but one of the deceased children, as well as the survivors of the crash, had now been identified.

“We are still trying to make sure that we identify that child, and we are working with the families,” the spokesperson for the Gauteng Education Department, Steve Mabona, said, adding the unidentified child was from Hoërskool Vanderbijlpark.

“We are still trying to get those families that might have lost or have a child who is missing. The government mortuary is assisting all the parents to make sure that they finalise the process and also [name] the one who is unidentified.”

He added that three pupils remained hospitalised, with another one in a critical condition having been airlifted to a private medical facility.

“The family decided to airlift the child to a private hospital,” Mabona said.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko provided further details, saying the injured children had been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Sebokeng Hospital.

“One learner remains critically unstable, while the other two are in a critical but stable condition,“ she said,

“All the ICU patients are female, aged 10, 15, and 16, and the learner who was airlifted is a 17-year-old female.”

She also said that they were working to finalise all autopsies by the end of Tuesday.

On Monday, a poster purporting to feature images of the children who had died went viral on social media. The department on Tuesday clarified that this was fake.