The loss of one human life “is one too many,’ says the President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) following the horror crash on the R518 Mmamatlakala Pass in Limpopo that claimed the lives of 45 people on Holy Thursday.

In a message shared with the SACBC communication office, Bishop Sithembele Anton Sipuka says, “is very sad to hear of a tragic bus accident of 45 members of the Zion Christian Church from Botswana destined to celebrate Easter at their headquarters in Moria Polokwane.”

“One human life lost is one too many, to say nothing about 45. We feel the pain of the relatives who have lost their loved ones and with tragedy, we assure that we are with them in spirit,” he adds.

Bishop Sipuka says those responsible for the Thursday, March 28 tragic crash that claimed 45 Easter pilgrims, with an eight-year-old being the sole survivor “must be held accountable.”

As officials investigate a case of culpable homicide Bishop Sipuka says If the crash “was due to a natural unavoidable accident, there is nothing that can be done about it, but if it is due to negligence about the physical and mechanical state of the bus, the tiredness of the driver (who is among the deceased) or any other negligence, those responsible must be held accountable.”

“We pray that they will be consoled by the knowledge that they died on their way to celebrate the Lord of life who conquered death, and so even as they have died, they are alive with the Risen Lord. May this thought, as St Paul exhorts us in 1Thes.4:13-18 be a source of consolation,” says Bishop Sipuka.

The SACBC president goes on to say “Easter” which the “faithful of Christ” from neighbouring Botswana “were coming to celebrate” in Moria the headquarters of the Zion Christian Church, “is a meaningful event of our faith because in the darkness that characterizes our personal lives and the world, it communicates that God is not abandoning us and the world in the fate and consequences of darkness.”

He continues, “The Risen Christ is urging us on that though the world is dominated by attitudes and dispositions of selfishness and injustice that lead to many people being subjected to abject poverty, loss of human dignity and resulting in the oppression of others and wars in which so many innocents are killed, with Him alive, this is not the end.”

“With the Risen Christ, we celebrate the certainty that the values enunciated in the beatitudes and the supremacy of love will prevail. The devil who rejoices at the destruction of people through sinful life that makes them live below the standard of their dignity will not prevail and the oppression and abuse of the poor will come to an end and a new heaven, and a new earth will come to fulfillment,” he concludes.

Meanwhile, the Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba says although some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, “nine of the bodies recovered from the scene were in a state where they could be identifiable,” and that the process of sampling DNA from the relatives of the deceased is already underway in Botswana.