The executive mayor of the Vhembe district, Cllr Philemon Mdaka, pledged support to the orphans whose parents died during the horrific ZZ2 truck accident along the Pafuri road a fortnight ago.

Mdaka was addressing hundreds of mourners at Matshena on Saturday during the mass funeral of the farm workers. They deaths came after the truck they were travelling in was crushed by a tomato trailer on a bend near Tshipise Aventura resort.

Nine women, a man, who was one of the drivers, and an 18-month-old toddler died in the accident, which left 20 others injured.

Mdaka said the government regretted the loss of farm workers on their roads, mainly because they were providers for their families and contributed to the growth of the economy.

Grieving mourners and survivors with visible scars wept uncontrollably as coffins lined the Matshena football ground. Mdaka said the district municipality would make sure that orphans were assisted through the Social Security agency to benefit from Government´s security grant. He said the government would increase efforts to make sure that the roads were expanded enough to offer emergency exit when accidents occurred.

He was reacting to concerns that there’s no way that the driver who was driving behind could have an exit because the curved road had a double barrier line. The funerals costs were funded by government and ZZ2.

ZZ2´s chief executive officer, Tommy Van Zyl, said the company had lost role players in the company because of their committed effort to production. The company had lost 18 workers in road accidents since 2005.

Van Zyl said the company was worried about accidents involving its employees but were doing everything possible, even beefing up drivers´ skills, but it was "unfortunate” that accidents occurred from time to time.

The bereaved families´ spokesperson, Solomon Mulaudzi, said although they were mourning, the government hadhelped them to overcome the challenge by stepping in and assisting when they needed it most. He thanked ZZ2 for having assisted the families ever since the accident happened.