'They were both lovely children'
The bodies of Kabelo Malema, 6, and Thato Mogotlhoane, 8, were discovered in a 2m-deep pool in a quarry about a kilometre from the dam, near their homes in Fleurhof.
Cornelius Mogotlhoane, Thato's grandfather, said the family was grieving the loss of their son, who was a "chirpy, lively young boy".
"We are all in pain," his grandfather said.
Mogotlhoane said the family did not blame anyone for the deaths because "children will always be children".
"As parents, we do our best to monitor our childrens' every move, but they always manage to slip out without the adults' knowledge," he said.
Kabelo's family said they were not ready to talk to the media.
They wept as the little bodies were loaded into a mortuary van.
The search for the boys began on Sunday afternoon after nine-year-old Thabang Tshikudu, the boys' friend, who had gone fishing with them, frantically alerted family members of the tragedy.
He told a church congregation nearby that Kabelo had gone into the water and started to sink. Thato followed him in, but also had difficulty.
Thabang waited for them to resurface and became alarmed when they did not.
Members of the community arrived to search for the boys in the hope they would be found alive, though it was known that neither of them could swim.
Divers had found no trace of the children in the dam.
A Fleurhof resident, Anthony Isaacs, said he saw the boys almost every day and the result of the search "was devastating".
"The boys would often walk past my house and ask for money or bread when they played in the area," he said.
"They were lovely children who just loved to keep themselves busy. We came together to start looking for them [on Sunday night] and were here again [yesterday] in the morning," he said.
"It's a sad time for all of us to lose children in this way," Isaacs said.
Police commissioner Oswald Reddy urged parents to teach their children that playing in water was dangerous.
"It is tragic to see a six-year-old and an eight-year-old lose their life because they can't swim," he said.
"There is no way they could have survived without knowing how to swim."
Police confirmed that an inquest docket into the incident has been opened.
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Ms. Mabaso