BADFONTEIN – Farm workers and landowners in the area are furious over the police’s reluctance to attend to a drowning on a farm last week.
According to Mr Douglas Dickson, owner of the farm, the police was informed about the incident on Thursday at approximately 18:00 after workers had searched unabatedly for 46-year-old Mr Amos Matsheka. He had gone missing on Wednesday night.
Fellow workers suspected something was amiss when Matsheka didn’t pitch for work on Thursday morning and reported his absence to Dickson. After a seach proved fruitless the police were summoned. According to Dickson, the police advised them to rather call back the next morning because“the shifts were about to change”.
“We called back at 05:00 on Friday and the police told us they were on their way. After an hour we called again and was told to open a docket at the police station first before they could help us”, said Dickson.
After no reaction from the police, Dickson’s wife, Isabel, called the K9 unit in White River and the Mpumalanga Off-Road Rescue and Inland Water Police & Diving Services, also from White River, also reacted to their cry for help.
“I cannot express my gratitude enough towards these teams for helping us,” said Ms Dickson.
According to her a copy of Matsheka’s ID document was sent to the police station but neither the police nor his family reacted to their calls.
Divers and rescue workers searched the donga where they suspected the body to be. They found Matsheka’s tobacco in the water as well as his hat and a can of milk he was carrying with him several metres from the donga.
Farm workers lined up at the scene to assist the rescue teams but the Lydenburg police were nowhere to be seen.
At 17:45 two constables of the local SAPS finally arrived, 24 hours after the incident was reported, but by then the body had already been recovered by divers and removed by a pathologist from White River. According to Mr Deon Broekman of Rapid Response in Lydenburg, no pathologists in Lydenburg were available at the time of the incident.
“I immediately went to the K9 unit where I found an officer in the crime office and informed him about the drowning”, Broekman said. The officer told him he would attend to the scene as soon as he had finished his food but no one ever arrived.
When Steelburger/Lydnburger News asked the two police constables why they only arrived 24 hours after it was reported, they said they were only informed at 17:45.
The paper went to the police station to demand answers but neither the communication officer nor the station commander was willing to give an explanation.
“The SAPS of Lydenburg do not have any information with regards to the incident,” the communication officer, Capt Mabokalate Mashabela, said. The matter was also referred to provincial police spokesperson, Sgt Gerald Sedibe, but no response had been received before going to press.
It also came to light later that farm workers suspected foul play.
“Something is fishy about this death and we would not be surprised if he was murdered,” one of Matsheka’s family members said.
“Although Matsheka had been drinking on the night of the accident, we cannot believe that he would fall into the donga. He knew the area like the palm of his hand,” he said.
