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Gov’t to pay for funeral costs of 7 dead students
Government has pledged to release an undisclosed amount to cover the funeral expenses of seven Matsha College students who died on Friday in a road accident, Parliament heard Tuesday.
The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Eric Molale also promised that government would provide psychosocial support to all the affected families. Some 121 students were involved in the accident while being transported to their different villages after completing their Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) final examinations.
The driver and his assistant are currently admitted at Scottish Livingstone in Molepolole. Molale said parents whose children are admitted at the hospitals will continue to be assisted with transport to visit their children. “In addition, some parents whose children are admitted have been provided with accommodation more especially in Gaborone,” he said.
But MPs for Selibe Phikwe West Dithapelo Keorapetse and Gaborone Central Dr. Phenyo Butale demanded to know why students were transported in a trucks when there is a policy that abolished their use to which Molale said would be answered after the ongoing investigations. “The policy of Government is to transport students in buses. This investigation will include why a truck was used in this instance. The investigation will therefore leave no stone unturned,” he said Molale would neither confirm or deny allegations that the cause of the accident was a tyre burst.
He said the police investigations would shed light on this as well. At the weekend press conference Minister of Education Skills and Development, Unity Dow, revealed that the children’s ages range between 15 and 22 and that, some of them were enrolled with Botswana College of Distance Learning (BOCODOL). She confirmed that it was a policy that students are not supposed to be transported by trucks, but noted that in some instances the terrains determine the mode of transport to be used.
Her counterpart, Minister of Health, Dorcas Malesu said that in conjunction with the Botswana Defence Force, Boitekanelo College and MedRescue International, they were able to get at least 15 ambulances to the accident scene. But in Parliament after Molale’s address, Molepolole legislator Mohammed Khan said ambulances arrived late at the accident. “The helicopter arrived at 6 pm yet the accident occurred at 2pm. We could have saved lives if they arrived well in time,” he said.
Head Pastor at Metsimotlhabe Holiness Union Church France Koosimile has distanced his church from Phenyo Godfrey who committed suicide live on social media a week ago. Speaking to this publication this week, Koosimile said Godfrey was never a Pastor at Holiness church as assumed by many.
Godfrey, who goes by the name Bishop P Godfrey on social media, allegedly shot a video of himself committing suicide on Sunday evening. According to a few friends and those close to Godfrey, the deceased was from Molepolole and has been identified as a pastor at Holiness Union Church in Metsimotlhabe.
On the evening of Sunday last week, he went live on Facebook and proceeded to put a rope around his neck. He was seen in the short video hanging by the neck until he took his last breath. TO READ THE FULL STORY, BUY THIS WEEK’S (11 August 2021) PRINT EDITION OF THE MIDWEEK SUN AT A STORE NEAR YOU.
Church distances itself from Pastor who livestreamed his suicide
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