WATCH: Mom who lost 3 kids in 2022 Pongola crash grieves while truckers continue to clog N2 highway

PONGOLA - The country’s dilapidated rail network has seen South Africa’s already congested roads falling under more pressure with trucks taking on the transportation of more freight.

This development, particularly for those around Pongola in northern KwaZulu-Natal, has not only adversely affected infrastructure, but comes with the trauma of constant carnage on its roads.

In 2022, a truck accident on the N2 claimed the lives of 20 people, including school children. Calls for intervention and stricter control have seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

Government has made promises to expand the highway, which caters for thousands of trucks daily, but when Eyewitness News paid Pongola a visit, the situation remains bleak – with a community fearful that one of these days it will see a repeat of the 2022 horror crash.

Eyewitness News is crisscrossing the country’s provinces, speaking to South Africans as they reflect on 30 years of democracy, and prepare to cast their votes in the upcoming general elections.

VULNERABLE RESIDENTS

Eighteen, 20, and even 50-wheeler trucks are a common sight in Pongola, with some of them moving too fast for a residential area. Even at the pedestrian crossing for schoolchildren, which was the scene of a horror crash back in 2022, trucks zoom past at full speed. 

This daily occurrence is particularly hard for Nonhlanhla Ntshangase, who lost three of her children, including her twin girls, in that accident.

"I had trauma from it, [it’s] worse now because it is affecting me. [As] much as I tried accepting that my children are gone, I have now developed a mental issue. I forget things. I’ve never been able to get much help from social workers." 

SAME ISSUE, TWO YEARS ON

Eyewitness News also spoke to Jabu Hansen, a community leader who’s been at the forefront of calls for the involvement of law enforcement authorities.

"Nothing has changed, the issue of the 40km speed limit was done for maybe a month after the N2 was reopened. After that, it was back to normal. The trucks are driving recklessly, overtaking and all sorts of things, so nothing really has changed."

In 2022, when Fikile Mbalula was still transport minister, he promised the roll out of a R2.5 billion project aimed at expanding the highway. It's two years now, and Mbalula has since left government for a full-time post at the African National Congress (ANC).

Meanwhile, residents, particularly children, in Pongola remain as vulnerable as they were before that fateful crash.