The search for the three women swept away by rising water at the train bridge on the R104, old Belfast road, has ended in heartbreak. All three bodies were recovered yesterday (Monday) after an intense, emotionally charged rescue operation that drew together families, emergency responders, and community members.

The search continued to 14:00, standing alongside devastated families, K9 handlers, divers, police officers, ambulance crews, and municipal teams. What unfolded was a day marked by courage, faith, grief, and an unbreakable sense of community.

A prayer gathering turned into horror when six women who had been part of a church prayer group gathered near the river last Sunday.

A sudden surge, caused by sluice water released from the Middelburg Dam, sent a powerful wave of water down the Klein Olifants River.
Ntombifuthi Victoria Sekwati (49), and sisters Nomusa Thabethe (44) and Lizzy Thabethe (36), a mother of a two-year-old little girl, were swept away before they could reach safety.

By early Monday morning, divers and Mounted Unit members had arrived and began sweeping the river’s strongest channels, while the K9 unit moved along the dense riverbanks tracking scent and debris patterns. The current was fierce, littered with branches and mud, turning every metre into a dangerous obstacle. Families lined the train bridge and surrounding embankments, praying, crying, and holding onto one another as updates filtered through from rescue personnel. Their strength was something extraordinary – a unity forged in the most devastating of circumstances.

Rescue teams braved the icy and torturous waters of the Klein Olifants River. As the hours passed, the river slowly revealed its truth. By midday, all three women were located in separate areas downstream from the bridge within a 1km radius from each other.
Every recovery scene was met with an outpouring of raw emotion, wailing, prayer, collapse, trembling hands held tightly by others refusing to let grief swallow them whole.

Rescue teams handled each woman with reverence, ensuring the families’ mothers, sisters, daughters and friends were removed with dignity. An immense feeling of hope was shattered as pathology vehicles drove past, and the reality struck with full force that three pillars of a faith community were gone.

A surviving member of the prayer group – still visibly in shock and faint – had refused medical attention after being rescued from the river, just mere hours earlier on Sunday. An ambulance was flagged down on Monday, and paramedics gently assisted and calmed her.

Family and friends experienced a devastating loss, a young daughter has no mother, a mother must bury her child, a brother now has no more sisters, and a community has lost three devoted women who lived their faith boldly.

What transpired at the train bridge has left a scar on Middelburg – one etched in tears, prayer, and the silent embrace of families who refused to leave one another’s side. Residents are urgently warned to stay away from the Klein Olifants River, as the high, fast-flowing water remains extremely dangerous for the public and for any ongoing official operations.

Three faithful women were swept away, and today, their town weeps for them.

• As search teams completed the recovery of the three women, emergency services were dispatched to a second suspected drowning in Aerorand, Middelburg.

Shortly afterwards, the body of another drowning victim, a 20-year-old man, was recovered from Athlone Dam. A police diver located him within five minutes of entering the water.

According to emergency responders, the young man drowned at approximately 15:30 on Sunday. All incidents remain under investigation.

In less than 24 hours, four drownings have shaken Middelburg to its core. The heartbreak is overwhelming, the loss is immeasurable, and the silence across the community of Middelburg speaks louder than any siren that rang before the water surged.