Fifteen teachers from different schools around Venda, as well as their driver, sustained serious injuries during a head-on collision that occurred between Polokwane and Mokopane on Satur-day morning.

According to Gumani Ragimana of Khubvi village, also a mathematics literacy teacher at Rammbuda Secondary School, the accident happened at around 03:40 when they were passing Mokopane.

“We were travelling in two minibuses from Thohoyandou to the University of Johannesburg where we were to attend different classes for mathematics. At around 03:30, we received a call informing us that the other minibus that was transporting teachers had been involved in an accident ahead of us. We were told it had been hit from behind by another car, but no one was injured. Hardly 10 minutes after we had received that message, our minibus collided head-on with a sedan car that was transporting Zimbabwean citizens,” he said.

“The cars rolled several times before they came to a stop far away from the main road. Some of us sustained fractured legs and hands, while others sustained serious injuries on their heads and bodies,” says Ragimana, who was briefly admitted to the Mokopane Hospital, together with the others, before he was released after being treated for head and waist injuries.

Ragimana, who resides in Khubvi, managed to produce a 95.2% pass rate in mathematics literacy from his matric learners at Rammbuda Secondary last year. This was his first year as a teacher at a secondary school, after being a teacher at Madifha Primary for the past years. According to him, the teachers have now decided that they are going to write a letter to UJ asking for the provision of classes at Polokwane to avoid these long trips that are also threatening their lives.

“As we are supposed to attend classes two Saturdays per month, we are prepared to use the money that we were using for our transport to transport the lecturer who will be teaching us,” says Ragimana, whose tuition fee is paid by the Department of Education as another way of empowering mathematics teachers.