Video: CCTV footage shows man whose body was found in stream, was at a tavern before disappearance
The man who went missing on May 26 in Kwazamokuhle was found in a stream close to his house.
Although the police say that Johannes Sibanyoni (45) drowned, his family can’t believe that he would just jump into a stream.
“Johannes was a good swimmer. Why would he jump into the stream, fully clothed at night in the cold?” his niece, Zanele Sibanyoni, said this morning, “His hat and cell phone are also missing. The cell phone is still on sometimes!”
The provincial police sent out a missing person’s report about two weeks ago, but they did not let the Middelburg Observer know that Sibanyoni’s body was found on June 2 in a stream close to his house. A friend of the family contacted us to let us know that his body was found, and the police confirmed ‘that an inquest was opened’.
The family said they called the investigating officer this morning, who told them that the cause of death was drowning. They can not believe it. They think he was assaulted somewhere else and dumped in the stream close to his house.
“Since the day he disappeared on May 25, were were walking up and down the stream to look for him. If his body was there, we would have found it.”
He left his house at about 15:00 on May 25 to go out for a few drinks with his friends, “He arrived there at 15:15 and left the tavern at 19:28. He never returned home.”
@middelburgobserver CCTV footage shows Johannes Sibanyoni, whose body was later found in a stream, at a tavern in Kwazamokuhle before he went missing. He’s seen wearing trousers and a shirt, with a person in an overall beside him.
Early the next morning, they opened a missing persons case at the Hendrina Police Station.
Zanele mentioned that it is a small stream and that everybody, even children, can jump over it, “Johannes jumped over the stream almost every day, for more than 20 years!”
A nearby neighbour found his body in the stream on June 2, and the family went to identify him at the mortuary.
The family was shocked when they saw his body, “His hands were broken, like if someone hit them with a hammer. He also had broken ribs. But we are still waiting for the post-mortem results.”
They described him as a kind person who loved people and never kept grudges against anyone.
Johannes is survived by his wife Dinkwetsi Granny Motsamai, five children, Lerato Esther, Tumelo Given, Thekegelo, Siphosethu and Given, and his mother, Esther.
• He was buried in Kwazamokuhle on Sunday.
