More than twenty people have drowned in rivers and dams across the Province in less than two months since the rainy Season commenced. From the beginning of October 2022 to date, the police have recorded twenty incidents of Inquests resulting from drownings, with the number of victims counting more than the incidents.
Members of the South African Police Service Search and Rescue Team have their hands full, attending to numerous calls of drownings in all five Districts of the Province.
The latest incidents involve the drownings of two school children at different locations in the policing precinct of Tubatse under Sekhukhune District.
A 12-year-old boy Thabiso Madire from Praktiseer outside Burgersfort drowned when he reportedly jumped into Tubatse River on 23 November 2022. His body was retrieved by members of the SAPS Search and Rescue Unit several kilometers from where he drowned.
On Saturday 26 November 2022, the same team managed to retrieve the body an 18-year-old boy, Gift Mitchel from the Olifants River under Tubatse policing precinct, at a distance of about 48 kilometres from the point where he was reportedly swimming with friends.
Another incident occurred at Vhulaudzi outside Makhado after the police received a complaint of drowning. Members of the Search and Rescue Team were dispatched to the scene and upon arrival they retrieved a decomposed body believed to be the one of an 11-year-old who was reported missing.
The body was found without both hands and had the clothes matching the description of the missing girl. Investigations have already begun to determine conclusive identity on the deceased and the circumstances of her demise.
Several pastors and congregants have also drowned performing religious baptism in rivers, streams and dams at different locations in the Province.
The Provincial Commissioner of Police in Limpopo Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe has called on communities to be wary of rivers and dams as persistent rains have probably raised dam levels and rivers might be flooding.
“Our members attached to the Search and Rescue Unit are currently stretched to the limit as reports of drownings are received almost every day,” concluded Lieutenant General Hadebe.
