A 35-year-old man drowned after his canoe sank in the Vaal Dam on Saturday morning, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said.
The man, from Deneysville in the Free State, was retrieving fishing lines when the canoe sank, Jake Manten, NSRI Vaal Dam station commander said.
“It suspected that cold water temperature of approximately 11 degrees may have contributed to the man getting into difficulty while attempting to swim to shore,” Manten said.
“During a police dive search operation the body of the man was located and recovered by police divers and sadly declared deceased by paramedics,” he added.
He said police had opened an inquest docket and the body of the deceased man had been taken into the care of the department of health forensic pathology services.
