But others were less immediately evident to those of us without the

But others were less immediately evident to those of us without the time, resources or imagination to venture into the darker recesses of the African condition.And if we began the appeal with a story which confirmed so many stereotypes – with a pitiful account of malnourished children with many long and stomach-aching months to go before the next harvest will be brought in – we ended with very different story from the same country, Mauritania.It too had a memorable sound. There were some extraordinary donations, including one for £14,000 which came with no covering letter of explanation There were several over £1,000. The average donation was £81.55, which charity fundraisers described as particularly high.We called the appeal Hope for Africa, and asked you for money for three charities: the continent’s largest indigenous medical agency, Amref, which is run almost entirely by Africans; a tiny environmental and forestry group called Tree Aid; and per- haps the most thoughtful of all the Western charities working in Africa, Oxfam.Some of the problems of that neglected continent were obvious enough – hunger, disease, war corruption and the increasingly cruel vagaries of the weather in our age of global warming. They are from field workers with the three charities that were the beneficiaries of this newspaper’s Christmas Appeal last year. Now Christmas Day has gone, the season of perfunctory ‘thank you letters’ is upon us. But The Independent has received three particularly inspiring letters this week. “What happened at the Saulspoort dam should not happen again,” he told mourners at a mass funeral..

There are about 500,000 accidents a year resulting in 10,000 deaths.In September 1999, 26 British tourists and their African guide were killed when their tour bus skidded off a wet road and down a mountain side on the notoriously treacherous Long Tom Pass near Mpumalanga. Earlier that year five British tourists were among 10 people killed when a bus skidded off a rain-soaked road at Piet Retief.In May last year 51 people were killed when a bus taking trade unionists to a May Day celebration plunged into the Saulspoort dam near Bethlehem after the driver took a wrong turn in foggy conditions.After that crash President Mbeki promised measures to avoid a repeat. I saw bodies lying in the road.”South Africa’s Transport Minister, S’bu Ndebele, said an investigation was under way, and the Mercedes Benz Sprinter minibus was being tested for mechanical failures.The crash appears to vindicate the tough stance taken over the festive season by KwaZulu-Natal’s traffic authorities against jaywalkers, who are said to be a major cause of accidents on the province’s roads.On Tuesday 175 pedestrians were arrested along freeways in and around Durban and Pietermaritzburg and charged under the jaywalking campaign.South Africa has the continent’s most extensive and modern road network, but safety is a serious problem. Further assistance is being provided by the acting high commissioner, Andy Sparkes, and a consular official.”Our hearts go out to the relatives of all those involved,” an Exodus spokesman, Powell Ettinger, said. “We are going to be running a full investigation into what happened We work with licensed operators.

Safety is uppermost in our minds for all of our holidays.”The bus was negotiating the treacherous and frequently misty R74 road when the crash happened near the Amphitheatre Lodge guesthouse between Harrismith and Bergville.”A man was walking around telling people he wanted to kill himself but no one took him seriously,” a witness, Buyisiwe Miya, said “Suddenly I saw him in the road walking in front of cars Most cars were stopping or going round him. The bus tried to avoid him but the trailer hit him.”The bus swerved across the road and into a ditch I was so scared I had to leave. It is tragic that [the holiday] has ended in this way and has left three daughters and their granddad distressed and distraught by something that has happened so suddenly.”The tour group was on a 16-day walking safari run by Exodus, a travel company, and was heading for a trek in the park.Royal Natal National Park is home to some of the Drakensberg Mountains’ most dramatic scenery, including the Amphitheatre, a rock wall that stretches for three miles.Exodus’s managing director, David Gillespie, has flown to South Africa to offer help to survivors and relatives. A married couple from Maidstone in Kent, also died when the vehicle overturned but their names were not disclosed. Consular officials in Pretoria were still trying to contact their relatives last night.Six of the victims died at the scene of the accident and two died later.Mr Egan, a retired physicist and keen mountain climber, was holidaying with his 61-year-old wife, Sonia Wilhoft, a former teacher who survived the accident.