Dan Mdluli
LIMPOPO – Police investigations are ongoing following the discovery of a 42-year-old farmworker’s body floating above the water in a dam at Graham Farm near Sekhukhune on Monday.
According to workers at the farm, John Phogole was last seen on Friday around 14:00 when he asked for buckets from the security guards’ rooms for a veld fire outside the compounds about 20 m from the dam in which his lifeless body was found around 06:30 on Monday morning.
Speaking to CV on Tuesday, Josphat Chimbada, a security guard at the farm, said he noticed one of the buckets Phogole borrowed to put the fire down was burned in the fire later.
When he went looking for him on Friday he looked in the dam and saw another bucket Phogole borrowed floating above the water.
“There was also a cap lying near the dam which I did not know who it belonged to. When I called his cellphone, it was on voicemail. When I asked around about him, people said he usually went home on Fridays after work. I thought he had gone home and so I stopped looking for him.”
Friends believe that Phogole, a good-hearted man who often lent people money, could have been attacked and then thrown into the dam.
Police said Phogole’s cellphone was still on him when his body was taken out of the dam.
WO Stanely Magaela, Groblersdal police spokesperson said Phogole was certified dead on the scene.
His body was taken to a government mortuary. “The postmortem results are expected soon and police investigations on the matter continue.” he said.
