In Botswana, 44 victims of an Easter bus crash in South Africa are laid to rest

By SELLO MOTSETA
Associated Press

MOLEPOLOLE, Botswana (AP) — At least 44 people who died in a horrific bus crash during Easter weekend in South Africa were laid to rest in Botswana on Saturday. About 5,000 mourners clad in black gathered in the Botswana village of Molepolole to pay their last respects nearly a month after the tragic bus crash that claimed the lives of everybody on board except one 8-year-old child. The victims were travelling to an Easter pilgrimage of the Zion Christian Church, one of the biggest churches in southern Africa, when their bus plunged about 50 meters from a bridge in South Africa’s northern province of Limpopo. The mass funeral followed the repatriation of the victims’ remains to their home country of Botswana.