Controversy surrounds the death of a 24-year-old man who drowned at Nkwe Resort, in in Welbekend east of Pretoria on Saturday.
Iphraim Tshabalala of Soshanguve, and a friend dived into the rock pool around 14:00, but he failed to resurface.
His body was later found by police divers.
A relative, Naomi Baloyi, told Rekord that the claim by the resort manager that Tshabalala was killed when his friend landed on his head was false.
“We understand that this was a freak accident but want to know why there aren’t any warnings prohibiting people from swimming like owner Dr Hennie Annandale said.
“We honestly do not want such an incident to occur to someone else but clearly the rock pools are dangerous.”
She said Annendale was not entirely truthful when he said there were warnings around the pools.
“He said [in reports] there were signage informing people to swim at their own risks. Why advertise the rock pools as a feature if you do not want to take ownership or responsibility?”
Baloyi said the group travelling with Tshabalala was made to clean up his blood off the pool.
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She said there was still speculation surrounding the death.
“We were told he may have broken his spine in contact with a rock, by his friends,” Baloyi said.
But on Monday Annandale had said two men had jumped into the pool.
“The second man may have landed on his friend’s head.”
He said the second man came up but it was soon evident he could not swim and other patrons had to rescue him.”
He said Tshabalala never resurfaced and other patrons made a failed attempt to find him.
“I then called the police who arrived and began the search for the body. Police divers found the body with a broken neck.”
Annandale said the rescued swimmer only had minor injuries and that there was speculation that Tshabalala could have been killed when his friend landed on top of him, but the police were investigating.
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“We would like to make it clear that this is a picnic resort and anyone that wants to swim is warned to do so at their own risk.”
He said the resort management could not put a barbed-wire fence around the stream that crossed the resort and he wanted to make it clear that there were signs displayed near the rock pools warning patrons to swim at their own risk.
Boschkop police Captain Marissa van der Merwe said Tshabalala was certified dead on the scene.
Divers and emergency services recovered the body from the stream.
“An autopsy to identify exactly what could have killed Tshabalala was being conducted by the police,” she said.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the man was declared dead around 16:00.
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