Survivor relives Mvuma horror crash

MVUMA - Alice Hodzi could not wait to see her husband after several months apart and she was very anxious when she boarded the Johannesburg-bound Proline bus on April 5.

Her husband works in South Africa.

Hodzi (29), of Mabvuku, Harare, boarded the bus at Roadport at around 6pm together with her 11-month-old baby.

However, as fate would have it, she never reached South Africa. Instead, she was to spend painful nights in hospital.

What started as a good journey turned tragic after the bus was sideswiped by a haulage truck after Nyamatikiti River at Chaka Business Centre, near the mining town of Mvuma along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway on Wednesday.

Instead of receiving her in South Africa, her husband had to come and visit her after she was hospitalised at Mvuma General Hospital. Hodzi suffered burns on her back.

The Proliner bus was sideswiped by the haulage truck and it burst into flames, killing 20 people on the spot and injuring 40 others.

The dead were burnt beyond recognition — consumed by the raging fire.

Still visibly shaken and disturbed by the accident, Hodzi said in an interview with The Standard she considered herself lucky to be alive as she was seated on the left side of the bus — thus away from the side that sideswiped with the haulage truck.

"I was awake when the accident happened, but I was seated in the middle seat. The bus driver was speeding and suddenly I heard a bang, then huge plumes of smoke and fire," she said.

Hodzi said there was pandemonium and chaos in the bus as everyone stampeded to escape.

"The impact of the crash threw off my daughter who was on my lap," she said.

"While others were escaping through a broken window nearby, I was pre-occupied with looking for my baby, who had been thrown under the seat.

"My weave caught fire and my head was burning. But I could not abandon my baby. It was better that we die together or that she survives."

She finally managed to take her daughter and jumped out through a broken window.

"Just as I exited, there was another explosion and the whole bus caught fire and I knew it was going to be difficult for those still trapped inside to make it," Hodzi said from her hospital bed in Mvuma yesterday.

"I could hear cries for help and pleas from other passengers, but there was nothing we could do.

"I was also trying to douse the fire that had caught my weave and clothes, burning my back."

Her daughter also sustained head injuries.

Hodzi, who said she did not fellowship at any church, said the accident had helped her to self-introspect. She promised herself she would turn over a new leaf.

"I think there is a reason why I survived together with my baby, especially considering that just when I got out of the bus, the whole of it caught fire and nobody was able to escape after that," she said.

"I was the last to escape and I think God has a reason for keeping me and my baby alive.

"While I do not go to any church, I think I have to look for one because I am alive not because I am clever, but because of the creator," was her parting words.

The government has pledged to provide forensic identification and funeral assistance to the people burnt beyond recognition.

Acting Local Government minister Obert Mpofu has declared the accident a national disaster.

Forensic experts are already assisting in the identification of the deceased in consultation with the bereaved families.

"According to police reports, indications are that 60 passengers could have been on board.

"Out of the 60 passengers, 40 were hospitalised and about 20 perished on the spot," Mpofu said, adding families would receive $295 each in funeral assistance.

The horror crash became the latest disaster to rock the dangerous Harare-Beitbridge highway.

The road is soaked by the blood of travellers that have perished over the years.

Of note is the Mhunga bus disaster of 2002 where 37 Masvingo Teachers College students were burnt beyond recognition.

The latest accident brought to the fore the outcry for the dualisation of the road.

In a move seen as an attempt to pre-empt calls for the speedy dualisation of the road, government yesterday said a $1 billion loan had been secured for the project.

"Why wait for people to die so that government acts? It is better to avoid the deaths on the road than to wait for disaster to befall us," said Masimba Gonese, co-ordinator of the Masvingo Human Rights Trust.

"Apart from being narrow, there are areas where there are no road markings along the way, while signs are also vandalised.

"It is the duty of the government to protect its citizens and value the sanctity of human life."