In a cruel twist of fate, all four children of the man who owns the minibus taxi involved in the Vanderbijlpark crash that claimed the lives of 14 school pupils survived – even though two of them were usually part of the daily school run.
The owner, Jimmy Vinger, is not only a well-known figure in his community but also deeply tied to the tragedy in several ways. His 22-year-old son, Ayanda Dludla, was behind the wheel of the minibus when it collided with an oncoming truck earlier this week, while his schoolgirl daughter was among the passengers. The pair were the only people in the taxi who survived Monday’s crash.
Vinger’s two younger daughters, who also normally travel in the same taxi, did not go to school that day. One had been suspended from school, while the other decided to stay home. That decision, made on an ordinary morning, meant they were not on board when the minibus collided with the truck.
A father torn between relief and guilt
In an emotional interview with the Sunday Times, Vinger said his disorientated son had phoned him moments after the crash. Shaken and confused, Dludla told him what had happened, and Vinger then had to do what no transport operator ever wants to do: notify parents.
He said he used a WhatsApp voice note to inform the parents of the children who had been passengers in the taxi about the accident.
Now, Dludla faces a long and difficult legal road. He has been charged with 14 counts of murder, as well as attempted murder, driving without a valid licence and driving an unlicensed vehicle. He has not applied for bail.
Dashcam video footage shows the accident happened after Dludla overtook several vehicles, placing the minibus directly in the path of an oncoming truck.
‘He is a good boy’
Vinger, who is the deputy chair of Gauteng Education Transport Services and a pastor at the African Immanuel Assemblies of God church in Sebokeng, said he had only rekindled his relationship with his son two years ago. Making him a driver, he explained, was part of how he was trying to rebuild their bond.
“He is a good boy,” he said. ”Everything being said about him is lies. He is a very humble, cool and collected person. He doesn’t even drink alcohol.
“When I saw him at the scene, he looked like he had lost his mind. He was crying nonstop and apologising to me, saying, ‘I know you wanted to build a good future.’”
Vinger said that, when they got home, his son’s first instinct was to go and apologise to the families. But then he asked him, “Papa, tell me, how is prison?” and he replied, “I don’t know.”
The pastor said he is haunted by grief and unanswered questions about the crash. He has stayed at home since the accident, unsure how to face people or explain what happened.
“May they forgive me. I can’t sleep. I’m not okay,” he said.
However, he added that the community had not turned its back on him.
“People love me. My neighbours have been coming around to comfort me. I help so many people,” he said.
“I keep saying to God, ‘Why would you allow the devil to win when I pray so much and keep your word? What is your purpose?’”
A family burying two generations
Among the families mourning is Mamokete Sefatsa and her daughter Felani, who both lost children in the crash.
Sefatsa’s 18-year-old son, Phehello Motaung, died in the co llision, as did her seven-year-old grandson, Lesego Sefatsa. Both lived with her, and both were laid to rest yesterday in Sebokeng.
When Felani arrived at the crash scene, she struggled to identify Lesego.
“I saw him breathing, but apparently he was gasping for his last breath,” she said. “He was face down in the rubble, and he took longer to be found. It was hard going from body to body [looking] for him. When we finally found him, he didn’t look like my little boy. I was not sure if it was him. His face was torn and bloody. It was only the following day, when he had been patched up at the mortuary, that I recognised him.”
Mamokete wept as she remembered a voice note Phehello had sent her during the December holidays, full of dreams about the future.
She recalled: “He said, ‘Mama, next year I’m going to get married and buy a big house on a hill, and I will make sure it has escalators so that you don’t struggle to go upstairs.’”
“The owner [of the minibus] is a pastor at our church, [and] we trusted him. We would even call him Papa Jimmy. I’m disappointed in him,” she said.
“Phehello was a loving child, forever smiling and always at church. He loved the band and [musical] instruments. He lived to worship. He was a considerate and sensible child.”
Fourteen young lives lost
The other pupils who died in the crash are Buhle Radebe, Bokamoso Mokhobo, Sibongile Madonsela, Leano Moiloa, Letlotlo Makwe, Ofentse Vinger (a relative of the owner), Lindokuhle Mabaso, Puleng Maphalla, Naledi Motsapi, Bohlale Lekekela, Thato Moetji and Sagwadi Mathe.
For their families, the legal processes and official investigations offer little comfort in the face of such loss.
‘He had an escape route’
Accident reconstruction expert Craig Proctor-Parker analysed the dashcam footage and said that while the direct cause of the collision was “unequivocally” the minibus taxi driver, it appeared that both the truck and the minibus had time to avoid the crash if they had reacted earlier.
“At 21 seconds into the video footage … you can see the minibus taxi is already on the wrong side of the road,” he said. “Both the minibus and the truck can already see each other.
“What is notable is that we see a queue of cars. [The minibus driver] is on the wrong side of the road, and it’s not as if he’s just attempting to overtake one car. No other taxis were overtaking, which plays into the driver’s psyche.”
By 26 seconds, he noted, both vehicles were travelling towards each other.
“That’s a long time. You’ve got enough time to see someone ahead of you, perceive them, and slow down and return to your side of the road, or stop or drive off the road.
Interestingly, the minibus taxi next to the taxi that crashed was acutely aware there was impending danger, as he moved over to the left-hand side.”
Proctor-Parker added that the truck driver clearly saw the danger and started to move to his left.
“The question is why the minibus taxi driver did not move back to the left while the other taxi gave him space to move back. He had an escape route. I would suggest he probably panicked.”
‘Full-blown, gross negligence’
Lesego’s father, Chris Masenya, said he was not emotionally invested in the court case, because nothing that happens in court could bring back his son.
“[This] was not an issue of driver ability, but full-blown, gross negligence,” he said.
Masenya is also sceptical about the Gauteng government’s latest crackdown on the pupil-transport industry in the wake of the tragedy.
“Where was that urgency before we lost our kids? It’s a phase, [and] in the [next] two months we will be back in the same spot,” he said.
For now, a community that trusted “Papa Jimmy” as both pastor and transport provider is left grappling with the painful reality that a familiar taxi, driven by someone they knew, became the scene of one of the worst moments of their lives.
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