Batswana Flock Salajwe To Bury Matsha Victim
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday November 23, 2015 18:00
The 19-year old young mother of a three-year old boy was one of the seven girls who perished in the fatal truck accident at Dutlwe village which left hundreds injured. The 126 students had, on that Friday of November 13, finished their final Form Five examinations at a Matsha College in Kang, and were being transported to their respective villages in the Kweneng West.
Among the mourners in Salajwe was the minister of Education and Skills Development Unity Dow, who contrary to tradition in which only men carry the coffin, helped lift it into the hearse. The deceased was described as a high academic achiever and an obedient youngster with no bad record.
Speaking to The Monitor on the sidelines, Morualebe’s uncle Puta Gabokganelwe explained that the family hoped the government helps them.“Oaitse was the family’s hope that they will lead a better life and demolish all these mud huts in her parents home. She was also to fend for her little boy who is not even aware that the mother is late,” he said.
Gabokganelwe further stated that they are not pointing fingers at anyone or intending to seek legal action. All they ask for, he said, was for the government to do something to improve their lives as they were hoping their child would take care of them.
Gabokganelwe added that the family have accepted that it was God’s doing that the young lives had to be lost in such a way. He however said they had spoken a lot about trucks. “We have complained to authorities in many kgotla meetings that trucks are not safe to transport our children. At some point they stopped and we have been given an impression that buses are the norm nowadays until this happened.”
In a separate interview, minister Dow later told The Monitor that each family “is going to be assessed and assisted according to needs. For example Oaitse leaves a three-year-old son. That is relevant to the kind of assistance going to the family”.
Morualebe was the first-born and leaves behind four siblings, both parents and her son.
While some may be quick to blame the driver of the fatal truck for the tragedy, one of his colleagues who spoke on condition of anonymity was insistent that their colleague is not to blame. “We have been driving students in trucks for a long time now. These excuses of buses not being able to traverse the terrains is rubbish,” he said. The driver said even though some roads are not tarred, the children could be transported by bus to Letlhakeng and then smaller off road cars used to take them to their final destinations. He said as drivers they just take orders without questioning to protect their jobs.
The seven female students met their fate on Friday, November 13, when the Kweneng District Council truck they were transported in overturned at Dutlwe village. It was alleged that the truck was overload, carrying 126 children and their luggage.
Following the fatal accident, which had left many reeling with anger accusing the government of neglect and exposing children to danger by transporting them in open trucks, Parliament and council chambers have been platforms of accusations and counter accusations. The government, including the President and his cabinet had been forced into a corner to assure the nation that students would no longer be transported in open trucks.
In the meantime, in a matter of days, ordinary people joined celebrities, visiting the accident survivors in different hospitals, donating food items, sanitary pads, fruits and attending to their every little needs.
The outpour of grieve and support seemed to move leaders, as ministers and the President were now seen speaking and consoling survivors and victims’ families publicly and swiftly moving to assure of speedy investigations. On Friday, just as investigations on the circumstances surrounding the incident intensified, the Matsha school head has been suspended.