Joy Turns To Mourning As Wall Collapses During Bride Price Paying Ceremony Killing Four

A wall has collapsed on some guests in a bride paying ceremony in Gachuene Thokgwaneng in South Africa on Saturday, Oct. 4th.

The guests in the ceremony were under a tent located near an uncompleted building.

Following a strong wind which collapsed a near by wall, three people died instantly while the fourth person gave up the ghost at the hospital.

Phinias Yika, the family spokesperson and brother to the bride, said that they were in shock over the incident.

He said that the ceremony was supposed to be joyful but unfortunately had turned to an incident of mourning.

Yika further went on to say that the bride had already left when the incident happened.

The ceremony had ended around 1pm to 2pm while the wind that collapsed the wall started picking up around 5pm.

He said: “As the Yika family, we are still in shock about what happened on Saturday. It was supposed to be a celebration day as they were paying a bride price for my sister … it was a lobola negotiation ceremony.”

“It was 1.5m or 2m away from the wall. The wind was so strong and collapsed the wall. It fell on top of the tent while people were inside. It happened so fast. After a few minutes there was dust and we couldn’t see what happened, but we knew that there were people inside [the tent]. After getting a clear view of what happened, that is when we saw that there were people trapped inside and we tried to remove them.

“For the lobola negotiations we finished early, at about 12pm to 1pm. The in-laws said they were going to fetch their bride at about 5pm. Immediately after they left, the disaster started. They had already left with their bride and most of people had left to accompany the bride.

“The few who were remaining and were involved in the incident were the ones who were left behind.”