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‘I WAS IN THAT KOMBI’

21/12/2014 08:23:00 BY MDUDUZI MAGAGULA

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MANKAYANE – Two people, who were aboard the minibus that was washed away by floods, claiming 13 lives on Monday, got off the vehicle a few minutes before the accident.

The Times SUNDAY has spoken to these men.
Their survival was miraculous, as they were passengers in the kombi believed to have been swept away by flash floods while crossing the Tsawela River on Monday.

In fact, Cash Tsela and Mncobi Msibi thank God for saving their lives. They survived because they disembarked from the kombi about 800 metres from the ‘river of death.’
The two said they alighted because there was a certain errand they had to do around Mgazini. This is where the kombi took the right turn from the Mankayane-Sicunusa road to the gravel road leading to Lushikishini, its final destination.
Tsela and Msibi work as conductors for minibuses that operate from the Mankayane bus rank.

This is the same terminus where they boarded the kombi at about 3pm, together with 13 other passengers destined for Lushikishini.
The kombi traded under the style, Khathazile Transport and was registered HSD 909 BH.
Tsela said when they got off the kombi, it was already raining hard and there was a hailstorm. “We asked the driver to drop us off because we wanted to visit our girlfriends from around the area, before we continued with our journey home,” he said.

Worth noting, however, is that the two men were not destined for Lushikishini. They are from Gege, which is in the opposite direction from where the minibus was washed away by the river.
Narrating how the fateful trip started from Mankayane, Tsela said the kombi left the Mankayane Bus Rank at around 3pm, destined for Lushikishini, an area located about 30 kilometres from the Mankayane town centre. Aboard were senior citizens, middle-aged men and women as well at least two children.

He said the passengers were seemingly acquainted with each other as they chatted about familiar subjects. “At some point, just before we left the rank, a man who was sitting next to me called one elderly man into the kombi. He said the old man was his neighbour and therefore asked that they leave town together because it was getting late.” The elderly man reluctantly boarded the kombi.
During the trip, all passengers were in a happy mood, chatting randomly about the forthcoming Christmas and celebrations associated with the day, as well as the rain, their fields and livestock.