The mangled minibus taxi is towed from the N2 near Mount Ayliff after Saturday’s crash
Three University of Fort Hare students remain in critical condition in hospital after five of their classmates were killed in a head-on collision in the Eastern Cape on Saturday.
The students were among 13 travelling in a privately operated minibus taxi that collided with a truck on the N2 near Mount Ayliff.
Two of the critically injured students have been transferred to a hospital in Mthatha.
A third remains at hospital and cannot be transferred because of their condition, while the other five survivors have been treated and discharged.
The taxi driver also remains in hospital.
The students had just completed their academic year and were on their way home to Bizana for the summer holidays when the incident occurred at about 7am.
University spokesperson JP Roodt said the institution was “truly heartbroken”.
“This is one of the most devastating and deadliest road accident tragedies involving Eastern Cape university students in recent years,” he said.
“What makes this loss particularly heartbreaking is that our students had just completed their academic year and were travelling home to Bizana to reunite with their families and loved ones for the summer holidays.
"A journey that should have been filled with joy and anticipation has ended in unimaginable grief.”
Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Mzukisi Njotini has asked the university’s acting executive director of student affairs to visit the bereaved families later this week to offer condolences in person.
The office will also arrange support for the families of the injured students.
“Our immediate priority is to stand alongside the bereaved families, offering compassion, comfort and whatever support we can during this profoundly difficult time,” Roodt said.
He said the Student Affairs Division was arranging trauma counselling and other support for the surviving students and anyone else affected by the tragedy.
Provincial transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose said on Saturday that the Toyota Quantum travelling from Alice appeared to have crossed into the path of a Mercedes-Benz truck travelling from Kokstad to Mzamba.
Driver fatigue was suspected to have played a role in the crash, but police were still investigating the exact cause.
The crash was the second deadly multi-victim accident on the Eastern Cape’s N2 in less than 24 hours, after seven people, among them a five-year-old boy, were killed near Ndabakazi on Friday.
Last month, six women died when a Toyota Quantum carrying 16 passengers from Beaufort West collided with a truck on the R61 outside Aberdeen, and fatigue was again among the suspected causes.
A week later, six more people died when a truck carrying about 30 passengers to a traditional ceremony in the Port St Johns area overturned near Bizana.