05 DECEMBER 2021, Cape Town – Netball South Africa is saddened by the passing of four people who were on their way to Cape Town for the 2021 SPAR National Championships.
An accident happened on Sunday (5 December 2021) in Aberdeen, Eastern Cape around 04:00am, it is understood that the bus was carrying two teams from the OR Tambo district. As things stand, a total number of four fatalities have been confirmed (three players and one official).
“As Netball South Africa we are deeply saddened by this news, losing lives is never an easy thing to deal with, we are devasted by the news and we would like to send our deepest, sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. We are all in mourning, the people that passed away are part of netball and we are heartbroken by all of this,” said netball South Africa President, Cecilia Molokwane.
MEC for Sports, Arts and Culture in the Eastern Cape, Fezeka Nkomonye and Eastern Cape Netball President, Nompumelelo Javu were at the scene, gathering all the much needed information from there.
“We can confirm that there has been four fatalities and we are in the process of informing families, this is not how we wanted to kickstart the tournament or end the year, however we find ourselves in this situation. These are trying times and we request a bit of privacy and space to handle this matter. We will liaise with Netball South Africa, and they will communicate accordingly,” said Mpumi Javu, Eastern Cape Netball President.
This is a developing story, and more updates will be made available as we get it from our end. At the moment, as Netball South Africa we would like to request that we be given the space to deal with this matter considering the sensitivity around it.
MEC Nkomonye has requested for a full report on the accident as soon as possible and has also indicated that she is very devasted by the loss of life.
