Jabulile Mbatha25 December 2024 | 6:09

Grandmother still haunted by deaths of her 4 grandchildren in Boksburg tanker explosion

Forty-one people, including eleven nurses and a driver from Tambo Memorial Hospital, lost their lives when a gas tanker exploded near the medical facility.

Grandmother still haunted by deaths of her 4 grandchildren in Boksburg tanker explosion

FILE: South African Police Service (SAPS) officers and forensic experts stand beside bodies in Boksburg, a city east of Johannesburg, on 24 December 2022 when a fuel tanker exploded. Picture: AFP

JOHANNESBURG - Two years ago, on Christmas Eve, an incident in Boksburg left the country in shock.

Forty-one people, including eleven nurses and a driver from Tambo Memorial Hospital, lost their lives when a gas tanker exploded near the medical facility.

The truck carrying the tanker got stuck under a railway bridge. 

The grandmother of the four children who died in the tragic incident said that Christmas was not the same without them.

Margaret Eales said that she was still haunted by the memory of getting the news that her grandchildren died at the same time.

"I was really heartsore because when I heard that Sebastian died in a helicopter because they said his head was open, I was traumatised. I cried, I was very upset and then I think [at] 18:35, then my auntie phoned me and said Adrian had passed away."

She said that the two other children were burnt beyond recognition.