Marlene van Staden (26), a professional photographer who was based in George, has been identified as the woman who was electrocuted while taking photos at a property in Island View, Mossel Bay, yesterday, reports the George Herald.

Van Staden had been taking photos for a property company’s listing in Zonnezicht in Visagie Street, right next to the Tuscany Park complex, when the incident occurred at about 12:35. She had reportedly been using a professional monopod that could extend over 10m. The monopod reportedly made contact with an overhead high-voltage line.

Enya Smit, whose home Van Staden had been photographing, said at the time, she was sitting on her stoep while her children were playing outside. The property agent was inside the house, showing people around. 

Van Staden greeted her and then walked out the Zonnezicht gate and along the fence, until she was near the entrance to Tuscany Park.

Smit said it looked like the monopod Van Staden was holding came into contact with the overhead power line. 

“I saw her walking with the stick and was about to tell her to duck, but then I just heard this massive boom. I saw the shockwaves move through her body and then she fell to the ground, and there were flames coming out of her body,” said a visibly emotional Smit.

She started yelling for someone to call an ambulance as she tried to keep her children away from the scene.

David Msindo, a gardener for Tuscany Park, had been standing a few metres from Van Staden when he also witnessed the accident.

He said Van Staden had greeted him and he had carried on with his work, until he heard the boom.

He looked over and saw her body on the ground, aflame.

“I ran into the complex and started calling for help,” he said.

Both Smit and Msindo said they feel extremely heartbroken for Van Staden’s loved ones.

“I didn’t know her, but I just feel so sad for her family,” said Smit with tears in her eyes. 

“I think of her family, the life she had planned and how quickly it can all just go.”

A close friend and colleague of Van Staden’s, who asked not to be named, said she was a professional photographer who specialised in real estate for the media company they both represented. 

“The extension she was using was a professional 10-metre carbon fibre monopod for no-drone fly zones, which she has extensive experience with, so this is an accident that truly took us all by surprise,” she said.

“Everyone who knows her, knows she is the kindest hearted person you’ll ever meet. Always bending over backwards to help. If she wasn’t working like the workaholic, she was, she was with her horses or buried in her books or busy with her commitments on the theatre committee. She had a long-term boyfriend whom she loved dearly. And a mum, dad and younger brother who form part of a very close-knit family,” she added.

The friend said Van Staden was an animal person through and through, and she loved taking photos of them in her free time.

Southern Cape Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie, said the medical personnel declared Van Staden dead on the scene, and the Da Gamaskop Police Station has opened an inquest docket. 

The police investigations are ongoing.

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