A survivor of the Jukskei River baptism told of a tragic, but heroic final act by one of the woman victims, who managed to ‘save my younger sister’ from the heavy currents before being dragged under by the raging current and disappearing.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the 20-year-old man said a pastor had advised his mother to take him and his younger sister to the river for ‘cleansing’ but first they went to the mountain to pray before going to the water for the baptism.
“We got into the water when it started to rain, we went out, and then it subsided. After the rain subsided the priest said we should go back into the river. The water level started to rise again and some people got out of the river while others couldn’t and they were swept away by the heavy current.
“But some of the people managed to swim out from the heavy current as it was pushing them, even my younger sister managed to get out after she was saved by one of the women who later disappeared in the water,” said the young man who is relieved that he escaped the whole ordeal but said that so many people drowned.
According to the young man, he got out of the river before the current was too heavy and that the priest was urging people to remain in the water and shouldn’t get out because he will pray for the water to go down.
Sadly, the water didn’t go down and more than 15 people including a three-month old baby whom the Johannesburg EMS spokesperson Xolile Khumalo said are still searching for the body.
Johannesburg Emergency Services confirmed that search and rescue operations along the Jukskei river and Sandspruit river have yielded results on Wednesday after another body of a female was discovered bringing the death toll to 15.
“So of the three family members who have reported that their families are missing, we are now looking only for a three-month old baby,” said Khumalo.
