The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has urged members of the public to take precaution whenever they go to dams, rivers streams, rivers or lakes.
The warning by the General comes in the wake of an incident in which a body of a man was recovered from a river stream in Kriel on Saturday 25 June 2022.
According to the report, on 13 June 2022 a local pastor in Kriel, together with a certain man are said to have gone to the river streams to pray however the man that the pastor went with, somehow fell and drowned.
Although the matter was reported to the authorities, his body could not be recovered then by members of the Police Diving Unit who did all they could to find him. The search for the man continued for days without any success until the divers finally retrieved his body.
The man has since been identified as Eric Tshifhiwa Phaswane, aged 43 from Thubelihle in Kriel. Police have opened an inquest case following the sad incident.
The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela further pleaded with the public to consider the shower rains that were experienced in some parts of the province which made the dams and rivers swell.” The incident is unfortunate and regrettable. We therefore request community members to think twice before coming closer to the rivers or dams for whatever reason as this might place their lives at risk” pleaded the General.
