Icy water and the misleading depth of the Vals River with its whirlpools were believed to have led to the death of a Kroonstad man after he jumped into the water to fetch a suitcase.
“One moment I saw his head above water and the next he was gone,” said a stunned Jaco du Plessis, 22, on the river bank.
Tow-truck worker Andries Vermaak, 41, disappeared into the water in front of Du Plessis in the river that ran through Kroonstad at about 21:00.
“Andries didn’t struggle or flounder. He just disappeared.”
Initially, Du Plessis thought Vermaak, who had been boarding with him for the past three months, was joking around.
But when some time had passed and he was still under water, Du Plessis feared something had happened and called the police.
The police’s Welkom diving unit retrieved Vermaak’s body and the suitcase on Wednesday morning. A dismayed Du Plessis stood on the river bank and watched as the divers searched for the body.
Many drownings in river
The tragedy occurred after Du Plessis, and other family members had gone to fetch his 26-year-old brother Kobus from the train station in the central part of town on Tuesday night. Vermaak had gone along.
They were walking from the train station across the Alexander Bridge to Du Plessis’s house in the residential area Suidrand.
Vermaak was carrying Kobus du Plessis’s wife, Louisa’s, suitcase. While walking on the bridge, the suitcase apparently fell over the railing and into the river, said police spokesperson Msisitheki Selima.
Vermaak ran to the river and jumped into the water. Du Plessis said Vermaak “went in, swam a bit and then just went down”.
According to a long-time resident, the Vals (False in Afrikaans) River got its name as the bottom was uneven in many places. There were apparently also whirlpools. This misled people and had lead to many drowning over the years.
[Story by Johan Brits appeared in Beeld]