At least 16 killed and 20 injured in South Africa bus crash

At least 16 people have died and another 20 injured in a bus crash in South Africa.

Authorities said 78 people were on the Cape Town to Idutywa service when the incident happened in the early hours of Thursday in the Eastern Cape.

The bus is believed to have overturned after swerving to avoid a delivery vehicle, said Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokesperson Simon Zwane.

He said the RTMC would be working with police to confirm exactly what happened.

The injured were taken to hospital in Worcester, 75 miles (120km) from Cape Town, while at least 43 people refused medical help.

Fog can make roads difficult to navigate during the winter in South Africa, and the country has one of the worst road safety records in the world.

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A bus driver died in another crash in Limpopo on Wednesday, while 14 schoolchildren were among several dozen killed in two minibus taxi crashes in January.

Forty-two people were also killed in October, at least 12 when a bus flipped over on a Johannesburg highway in March 2025, and 45 died in March 2024 when a bus veered off a bridge.

(c) Sky News 2026: At least 16 killed and 20 injured in South Africa bus crash