TWO VOTERS DIE ON SCENE AT MPOLONJENI

MPOLONJENI  – Grief and sorrow from the close to 100 onlookers blanketed the Mpolonjeni area yesterday morning after two voters died on the scene after being thrown off an Isuzu double cab bakkie they were travelling in.

The spine-chilling accident happened at around 5am, near the home of former Mpolonjeni Member of Parliament (MP) Jacob Siwela. According to Jabu Dlamini, a family member of one of the deceased, she was informed that her sibling was on board the bakkie with others from the Mpolonjeni Polar and Rest Bar, situated just about two kilometres from the scene of the accident. Dlamini said she was told the people on board the bakkie were going to another drinking spot to celebrate the winning of Mpolonjeni MP elect Kwanele Ndzimandze.

position

When this reporter arrived at the scene, the bakkie was found landed on a sideway position and notable were the littered beer bottles. It took the police and paramedics using their ambulances and police vans close to two hours to ferry the bodies and injured people to the hospital. Noteworthy is that some were found motionless, unresponsive to the paramedics who were attending to them. One of the deceased had one of his legs cut-off and police officers from the Siteki Police Station took it, together with his lifeless body to a nearby police van.
Another body was covered with a white plastic, while four other bodies were not responsive when they were being examined by the paramedics. A fire, rescue and emergency truck also arrived at the scene, joined by the police officers from the Scene of Crimes Department in Siteki.

attention

Some of the people who were seriously injured were whisked to the Good Shepherd Catholic Hospital for medical attention. About 16 of them are admitted with serious injuries to the hospital, while 12 were treated and discharged. Dlamini shared that she was informed that the driver was driving towards the Bid Bend direction in a zigzag manner and lost control of the vehicle that went on to hit a signboard near the road and overturned, tossing the occupants in different directions. “I am still traumatised after seeing my sibling’s body covered with a jacket as we were still waiting for the police to come to the scene of the accident,” she briefly said before she was engulfed in grief and sobbed. A police officer from the Traffic Department found at the scene confirmed that two died on the scene after the accident. “We only have two whom we can confirm died on the scene of the accident and we are still to get the figures of those transferred to the hospital as some of them are in a critical condition,” said the police officer.

instincts

Another onlooker, who witnessed the accident, said she was grateful that her instincts told her otherwise as she avoided boarding the vehicle at the Mpolonjeni Polar and Rest Bar.
She said the voters were celebrating the win of Ndzimandze, who beat former Mpolonjeni MP Siwela during the secondary elections. She mentioned that the vehicle was driving in a zigzag manner along the road to Big Bend when they came across the  speed humps yet the car was  overloaded. “I cannot know if they were going to celebrate in another drinking spot or going to KaShoba at the homestead of the winner,” she said after requesting that her identity be concealed. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said a young men aged 16 and another aged 52 were certified dead upon arrival at the hospital. Vilakati said the driver and 16 others were currently admitted to hospital while 12 were treated and discharged.

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