MUKULA – “Lutshetshe lwanga lu kha di tshila…?” (Is my little baby still alive?) This was the first question a shocked woman asked when she came out of a badly wrecked, overloaded taxi which crashed into a large stone at Mukula village, north of Thohoyandou, on Tuesday morning.

Awelani Nthangeni (24), who still had the baby on her back, was relieved when the paramedics assured her that her baby was alive.

It was just an ordinary working day for all the 18 occupants of the taxi, but things suddenly turned bad when the driver failed to bring his vehicle to a halt at a T-junction next to Woza Woza Road House. The taxi went off the road and hit a cliff where it was stopped by a large stone. All the occupants were injured and they were still receiving treatment at Donald Fraser hospital at the time of going to press. Hardly a month passes without a vehicle colliding with the “cliff of death.”

Insp Nkanukeni Raedani of the Thohoyandou SAPS explained to Mirror what happened: “The taxi was coming from the Tshidzini/Gaba direction when it failed to stop at a busy junction. It then went straight into a cliff on the other side of the road. Members of the traffic police and paramedics rushed to the scene where they rescued those injured, who were later taken to Donald Fraser Hospital for treatment.”

Raedani confirmed that the taxi had been overloaded. “Eighteen people occupied the taxi and all of them were injured. A case of reckless and negligent driving is under investigation and a full report will be available as soon as the investigations are complete.”

Although she was visibly shocked, Awelani Nthangeni managed to speak to Mirror before she was taken to hospital by ambulance. She said: “The taxi was overloaded and we were made to sit four-four (khari dzulisane) in each seat. It happened so suddenly that no one even managed to scream. I closed my eyes when I saw that the taxi was rushing into a cliff. We were very lucky to survive, but I thank God because my little baby, who was on my back, escaped unharmed.”