Leribe student’s head cut off by a traffic sign post in Durban as he looked out of school bus in a shocking freak accident which has left his classmates and teachers severely traumatised
Lekhetho Ntsukunyane
Traumatised Molapo High School students and teachers finally arrived home on Friday morning after an educational trip to South Africa, which ended in tragedy after one of the learners was decapitated by a traffic sign post in a freak accident along a Durban street.
The horrific accident, captured live by a witness on his mobile phone, happened on Thursday as the group of 106 Force C students was winding up its tour and preparing to leave the city.
The 16-year-old boy had been looking out of the bus-window as it drove down the narrow street when his head was cut-off by the sign-post in full view of his classmates and teachers.
Durban police were immediately at the scene of the tragedy and cordoned-off the street before taking the deceased teenager (name withheld for professional reasons) to a mortuary.
The principal of the Leribe-based school, Moses Phoole, yesterday told the Sunday Express that the group returned through the Ficksburg border post on Friday morning “extremely traumatised”.
Mr Phoole, who was not part of the trip, but sounded anguished, said four of the students and the driver collapsed when their bus arrived at the border.
“We waited for them almost the entire Thursday night after receiving the shocking report about the boy’s death. They only arrived around 7am on Friday showing signs of severe trauma,” Mr Phoole said.
“But as soon as the bus stopped at the border, four of the students and the bus driver lost consciousness and were immediately rushed to hospital. A counseling-cum-prayer-session was also held for the group at Leribe Lesotho Evangelical Church here. We are all still in a state of shock,” he said.
According to Mr Phoole, the boy’s family can’t come to terms with their loss.
“The father is in a terrible state, while the mother has not come to terms with this tragedy at all. She does not believe that her boy is dead. She keeps asking what happened. It is as if this has affected her mentally because she continually asks what happened to her son,” he said.
The education trip, Mr Phoole explained, was part of the learners’ syllabus ahead of Junior Certificate (JC) examinations.
“It was supposed to be one of the many properly organised and well-executed trips for our school; an educational tour ahead of external exams for our Junior Certificate students for this year.”
Mr Phoole said the students left for Durban last Sunday and were supposed to return late Thursday—the day the accident happened.
Mr Phoole said: “The trip was almost over, with the mission accomplished. The accident took place while preparations were being made for the students to leave Durban later the same day.”
The principal further indicated that the school authorities were planning with the grieving family to see how they could go back to Durban to repatriate the boy’s body. This, he said, was after the Lesotho Durban Consulate indicated it could only help with the “paperwork” but not transport for the deceased.
“We had asked for help from the Lesotho Durban Consulate to repatriate the body. Unfortunately, we have just received communication from the embassy saying they would not be able to assist us in terms of transporting the body to Lesotho. The message simply says the Consulate can only process documents for the repatriation of the body. Our deputy principal, who went on this trip as the overseer, is still in Durban helping with the repatriation arrangements,” Mr Phoole said, who also appealed for help from well-wishers in bringing the boy home.
“We are appealing for help from all the people of goodwill out there so that we can bring our boy home. The well-wishers can chip in with anything that will help us during this difficult period because we are facing a very hard time ahead of us.”
For her part, the Leribe Senior Education Officer, Sekhotseng Adam-Molapo, on Friday told the Sunday Express that the news had come as a shock.
“We knew about this trip from way back when it was being organised…and we approved it because it was on the school’s educational calendar. We worked together with the management of the school for this trip to succeed. We are all shocked here that this has happened,” she said.
Ms Adam-Molapo further said the Ministry of Education was hoping Foreign Affairs could intervene and help with the repatriation of the boy’s remains.