File
A truck driver has been jailed for an effective 20 years by the Kwazulu Natal High Court for a horror accident that claimed the lives of 20 people.
The National Prosecuting Authority said 30-year-old Sibusiso Siyaya was jailed on Thursday following his conviction for murder, reckless and negligent driving, and failure to perform the duties of a driver after an accident.
Siyaya, who was employed as a driver for a company that transported coal from Mpumalanga to Richards Bay, drove recklessly and overtook several vehicles on a double barrier line and collided with an oncoming bakkie packed with passengers.
Twenty people, aged between five and 28, and predominantly school children, perished in the horror accident which was caught on the on-board camera of another vehicle.
NPA regional spokesperson, Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, said 12 witnesses, including three experts, testified during the trial.
She said testimony from the families was that they had been devastated, with one mother losing all her children, while another said she lost three children in the accident.
Ramkisson-Kara says since the court considered the murder counts occurred as one single act, Siyaya was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on the murder charges, three years for reckless and negligent driving, and six years for the failure to perform the duties of a driver after an accident.
“The court ordered that the sentences for reckless and negligent driving and failure to perform the duties of a driver run concurrently, resulting in the effective sentence of 20 years imprisonment,” she said.
“The NPA welcomes the outcome of this precedent-setting case,” she said.
