The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided an update to this weekend’s deadly bus crash in the South African country of Lesotho.
Ten people died in the crash, after the minibus carrying 27 young women and two adult leaders was involved in a multivehicle accident on the way from Maputsoe to Maseru, which is the country’s capital.
Eight of those who died were young women and two were leaders from the Maputsoe Branch. Their names have not yet been released.
As of Monday, June 23, 13 others who were injured are currently hospitalized and five have been released from the hospital.
They were on the way to a district Young Women activity one and a half to two hours away in Maseru. The Maputsoe Branch is in the Maseru Lesotho District, which is similar to a stake and falls under the South Africa Johannesburg Mission.
The families are now making funeral arrangements, most likely for a joint memorial service for everyone together, explained Elder Siyabonga Mkhize, an Area Seventy in the Africa South Area who is acting as a spokesman for the Church for this incident.
“We are encouraged by the faith of the members in Lesotho, and we join with them, obviously, in this very difficult time,” Elder Mkhize said. “It’s been a difficult moment, but we are encouraged by their faith, their strength and, of course, the healing that some are already experiencing through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
Lesotho is a landlocked country surrounded by South Africa and is a part of the Church’s Africa South Area. It is home to more than 2 million people and nearly 2,000 members of the Church.
Church leaders in the nation and the Africa South Area acted quickly to provide support to the affected families, including counseling services, said Makatleho Moorosi, who is the Church communication director for Lesotho. “It is indeed a very devastating situation,” she said.
The Church also worked to provide logistical support, as many of the victims were in different hospitals in Maseru and even South Africa, Elder Mkhize said.
“We are really grateful for the leaders and just the members’ faith to rally around those that were affected, in terms of just trying to go to the hospitals and to see how they can be able to help,” he said.
Leaders of other faiths and the government of Lesotho have been supportive as well. The queen, prime minister, members of Parliament and others have sent messages of condolences and even visited the injured victims in the hospitals. The Parliament members also attended sacrament meeting services with the Maputsoe Branch, Moorosi said.
“It was a very heavy moment on Sunday when we had the family members with us and, of course, as members — we knew them, we had a relationship with them as brothers and sisters,” she said. “The two speakers gave talks that were solemnly made to comfort all of us that have been affected by this.”
Elder Mkhize said news of the tragedy quickly traveled around the area, and messages of support have come from Church members in South Africa as well.
The cause of the crash remains under official investigation.
