Student whose leg was crushed by police nyala during Bok tour dies in hospital

A 20-year-old Walter Sisulu University student has died in hospital, just days after her leg was crushed by a police nyala during the Bok tour in East London. The woman’s leg was amputated in hospital and she died days later. File Picture: David Ritchie / Independent Newspapers

A 20-year-old Walter Sisulu University student has died in hospital, just days after her leg was crushed by a police nyala during the Bok tour in East London. The woman’s leg was amputated in hospital and she died days later. File Picture: David Ritchie / Independent Newspapers

Published Nov 15, 2023

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A woman whose leg was amputated following a freak accident during the Springboks' Webb Ellis Rugby tour in East London, has died in hospital.

A twenty-year-old student, Minentle Noqhamka, was injured when a South African Police Service (SAPS) nyala crushed her leg during the East London leg of the countrywide tour.

According to News24, she died on Tuesday.

SA Rugby expressed sadness at Noqhamka's death.

SA Rugby president Mark Alexander extended heartfelt condolences to Noqhamka's family and friends.

Alexander said the tour was to share the team's victory and it ended in sorrow for the family.

News24 reported that the nyala drove over Noqhamka's leg as police were trying to escort the team to East London's City Hall more than a week ago. She was a student at Walter Sisulu University.

In KwaZulu-Natal, just hours earlier, Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube was left stranded at the roadside due to a payment dispute with the bus company hired.

Sunday Tribune reported that both heavyweight provincial politicians were passengers on the same bus for nearly four hours, trailing the rugby players during last Saturday’s procession, before the vehicle stopped on the side of Josiah Gumede Road, a short distance from Fields Hill (M13).

It soon emerged that the driver of the bus was ordered by the bus’s owners to halt the vehicle because payment had not been received from the main contractor.

Dube-Ncube appealed to the owner over the telephone to continue with the journey, but to no avail.

Some journalists, who were also on the bus, were assisted with transport by support vehicles in the cavalcade.

However, about 10 journalists and Duma, the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs, remained in the halted vehicle.

The driver then agreed to transport the journalists back into the CBD, while the MEC was collected from the roadside and was part of proceedings at City Hall.

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