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JOHANNESBURG. – At least 20 employees of the mining giant De Beers died on Sunday in South Africa in a head-on collision between a truck and a bus  transporting workers to Venetia diamond mine, one of the largest in the country.

“A bus transporting employees of the Venetia mine was involved in an accident on Sunday afternoon ,” according to a spokesperson for the Limpopo department of transport and community safety, Vongani Chauke. “The accident “cost the lives of at least 20 mine employees” .

Two of the deceased people are women who were travelling in the bus. The cause has not yet been determined.

Chauke  said accident occurred around 4pm, about 25 km from the mine, in the town of Musina, located on the border with Zimbabwe. The workers were going to work on an underground project at a mine owned by De Beers.

Provincial Transport Minister Florence Radzilani, who visited the crash site yesterday day, lamented the state of some of the trucks that travel on the roads. Venetia mine is located near the border with Botswana and Zimbabwe. – AFP