Fifth body found at the Hennops River in Centurion

A fifth body has been found at the Hennops River in Centurion, Pretoria. The police’s search and rescue team was searching for the three police constables who went missing last week Wednesday, when they uncovered two more bodies a few kilometres apart.

Deputy National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya says they are trying to establish what could have happened in the river.

“This is as a result of a search by the divers as they have been coming with the dogs, following the river from that side of Hennops, from the N1 up to where we are right now. It’s almost between 8 and 10 kilometres. So, we are still busy processing the scene,” says Sibiya.

Meanwhile, police are still searching for the vehicle in which three missing officers were travelling after a total of five bodies were retrieved from river.

It is not clear at this stage if three of the bodies are those of the missing police constables who were en route from Bloemfontein to Polokwane, or if they are all part of the same incident.

The families of the three constables have arrived in Pretoria, to assist with identifying the bodies.

The officers went missing last week Wednesday, while en route to their posting in Polokwane where they were to be part of operation Vala Umgodi.

Lt-Gen Sibiya says, “Obviously, we do not want to say a lot while the families are not yet here. Otherwise, they are going to learn some of the things from the media, which is actually going to be bad. It could be anything. Remember, it was in the early hours of the morning and at this point in time we cannot really determine up until the investigation is concluded.”