Mapisa-Nqakula visits SANDF crash victims
Updated | By ANA
Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and top military officials on Saturday visited numerous South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members injured in a bus crash on the R712 in the Free State.

The minister initially visited the 3 Military Hospital in Bloemfontein where eight members of the SANDF are being treated. The entourage was also scheduled to visit other injured SANDF members at other hospitals.
SANDF spokesman Brig-Gen Xolani Mabanga said Mapisa-Nqakula would address journalists at the hospital only after a closed door briefing with Free State provincial authorities, including police, roads, and transport MEC Butana Komphela.
Earlier on Saturday, Mapisa-Nqakula offered condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the 11 SANDF members who died in the horrific bus crash on Friday.
“On behalf of the ministry of defence and military veterans, I would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the families of SANDF members killed in a bus accident on the R172 in the Free State on Friday 19 August 2016,” Mapisa-Nqakulu said in a statement.
“We are saddened by the loss of lives of and our deepest sympathies go to the families of the members. We wish the injured a speedy recovery,” she said.
Nine women died on the scene when the bus rolled down an embankment on the R712 in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Another two women died in hospital. A number of other SANDF members sustained various injuries in the crash.
Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokesman Simon Zwane said earlier the cause of the crash had not yet been established.
– African News Agency (ANA)
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