BURGERSFORT – A huge tragedy struck Ga-Motodi Village last weekend when two young boys drowned in a nearby river. Their bodies were only discovered 23 hours after the incident.
On Saturday morning eight boys from Ga-Motodi Village went to play at the Tubatse River located between Stasie and Thushanang. This was a normal weekend activity for them. They usually swam and played at the river until the afternoon. But things turned out for the worst on Saturday.
Clifford Ngwato (10) was the first one to jump of the bank into the river. After he jumped in he struggled to resurface. One of the boys saw him struggling and jumped in to rescue him, but Ngwato slipped out of his grip and disappeared under the water.
The other boys ran home to seek help when Tshepiso Maole (12) met them along the road. They told Maole what had happened and he rushed to the river to save Ngwato. By the time the boys reached their home and found help, both Ngwato and Maole were missing.
Community members rushed to the river, but the two boys were nowhere to be found.
Ms Meriam Ngwato, Clifford’s aunt, phoned the Praktiseer police. Ngwato and Maole went missing at approximately 09:00. At 12:00 four policemen arrived at the scene. According to Meriam no attempts were made by them to get into the water and search for the boys.
“The policemen left and at 16:00 came back with a boat to search the river, but could not find any bodies. They told us to monitor the area through the night and that police divers would come on Sunday to search for the boys. They did not place any red tape around the scene when they left,” added Meriam.
Throughout Saturday night the community gathered at the river while praying and singing. By Sunday morning one of the bodies surfaced.
“Everyone was too scared to go into the water, but Ms Lina Mashego, also Clifford’s aunt, went in to retrieve the body. It was Clifford’s. We contacted the police at 08:00 when the body first surfaced, but they only came around 11:00, accompanied by the divers. After an hour of searching the water they found Maole’s body. He was from Praktiseer and was visiting his grandmother that weekend,” said Meriam.
Both boys were declared dead on the scene. There is still no warning signs placed at the river and the community fears that the same incident may occur again in the future.
“When we were informed about the situation we immediately phoned the Thohoyandou police in Venda to arrange for divers since there are no divers at our station. They had another emergency rescue on Saturday and could only assist us on Sunday,” said Const Jerial Movundlela, Tubatse police spokesman.
