June 23, 2025, 3:53pm MDT
Latter-day Saints’ Church of Jesus Christ has provided an update on this weekend’s fatal bus crash in Lesotho, South Africa.
Ten people were killed after a minibus carried a minibus carrying 27 young women and two adult leaders, and two adult leaders were involved in a multi-purpose accident on their way to Maseru, the country’s capital.
Eight of the deceased were young women, and two were leaders of the Maputsoe branch. Their names have not been released yet.
As of Monday, June 23, 13 other injured people are currently hospitalized, and five have been released from the hospital.
They were heading towards young women’s activities in the district, 1.5-2 hours away in Maselle. The Maputsoe branch is located in the Maseru Lesotho district. This is similar to a bet, and falls under the Johannesburg mission in South Africa.
The family is currently arranging funerals, but perhaps for the joint memorial service of everyone, Elder Siyabongamkiz, a region in the southern African region, who is acting as a church spokesman for the incident, explained.
“We are encouraged by the faith of our members of Lesotho and will obviously join them at this very difficult time,” Elder Mkhize said. “It was a difficult moment, but we are encouraged by their faith, their strength, and of course the healing we have already experienced through the tone sin of Jesus Christ.”
Lesotho is an inland country surrounded by South Africa and is part of the church’s southern region of Africa. It lives in the area of over 2 million people and approximately 2,000 members of the church.
Lesotho’s director of church communications, Makatrejomulosi said church leaders in the country and southern Africa will act promptly and provide support to affected families, including counseling services. “It’s certainly a very devastating situation,” she said.
The church also worked to provide logistics assistance as many of the victims were in different hospitals in Masel and South Africa, Elder Mkhize said.
“We are truly grateful for the faith of the members who bring together the people affected, in terms of going to the hospital and seeing how they can help,” he said.
Other faith leaders and the Lesotho government were equally supportive. The Queen, Prime Minister, and members of the Parliament sent messages of sad dol and even visited the hospital victims. Members of the parliament also attended the Sacramental Conference Service with the Maptosou branch, Murosi said.
“When we were with our family and of course as members, we knew them, so we had a relationship with them as brothers and sisters,” she said. “The two speakers gave a stern speech to comfort all of us who were affected by this.”
Elder Mkhize said news of the tragedy was travelling through the area soon, and messages of support came from church members in South Africa.
The cause of the crash is currently under official investigation.
