Tati River missing man found dead

Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday January 11, 2019 13:51

In a telephone interview with this publication, Serumola said that the deceased who drowned in the heavily flooded Tati River was identified as Mpaphi Olebetse from Sebina village. He revealed that the body of the deceased was found badly decomposed about one kilometre away from where he drowned.

He said that Olebetse was found following collaborative efforts made by the police and Botswana Defence Force (BDF) scuba divers and the community. The police boss said that the body was then taken to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital for postmortem and was later released to the relatives for burial arrangements.

When narrating the events that led to Olebetse’s death Serumola said that the deceased met his fate when he tried to cross the flooded Tati River.  He was allegedly travelling with a friend from Somerset East-Extension to Block One.

He indicated that the deceased’s friend escaped the tragic incident by a whisker because he walked a distance behind the deceased. The police boss added that the friend’s efforts to rescue the deceased were in vain as he could not swim. Serumola urged the public to always use bridges to cross rivers and avoid by all means using rivers as shortcuts to their destinations during rainy season.

He also appealed to parents to always keep a close eye on their children so that they do not play near the river when it is in flood.