By Rex Mphisa
THE remains of six Zimbabwean children, part of the 44 people who perished in an accident outside Makhado on October 12 2025 arrived home in Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
Beitbridge District Development Coordinator Sikhangezile Mafu presided over a brief Government ceremony to send off the little ones.
They had remained in South Africa for what the Government of that country said would be a meticulous and thorough identifican that involved deoxyribonucleic acid (dna) processes.
Physically, the relatives of the deceased children identified them at Siloam Hospital durn a function also attended by Ziyah News Network.
The six children were from Bikita (2), Mberengwa, Rusape, Gokwe and Mt Darwin and their relatives escorted them.
All repatriation and funeral costs were footed by the Government .
Their small sized coffins in a row at Doves funeral parlour triggered emotions among the crowd including Beitbridge Town Councillors Takaendepi Mahachi and Emmanuel Takutaku who attended.
“Its painful for parents to bury their young children. It should be the opposite. But nature has its ways,” remarked a mourner.
Their arrival at Beitbridge and departure to their final resting places closed another dark chapter in Zimbabwe’s bus accident history desite his having occured in SA.
The father of one of the deceased Geirge Mashavira, whose wife also perished in the accident, was at Beitbridge to receive his loved one aged a year and seven months.
“We have the bodies of our deceased but we never recovered some of the goods. Even those we identified and put on another bus were lost again, ” he said.
“I had found a bucket, a Tshangaani bag and another small bag my wife had on the fatefull day but these goods are lost again,” he said.
Goods that were missing had been loaded on a bus belonging to Weber Buses after the DNC Coaches buses had temporarily been banned from SA roads.
The DNC bus had a mixture of Zimbabweans and Malawians, travelling back home when it veered off the N1 North near Louis Trichardt (Makhado), killing 44 passengers and injuring 40 others.
In total 36 Zimbabweans died and 13 remain hospitalised in South Africa, with three in a critical condition.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the accident was due to brake failure and overloading of the bus, which was carrying 91 passengers with only a 62-seater capacity.