Weather to determine if search for Jukskei drowning victims can continue

Johannesburg emergency services remain on standby to resume the search for missing church members swept away by flash floods at the Jukskei River on Saturday.

Speaking outside the Sandton fire station on Monday, Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said weather patterns would determine if they continued the search operations.

“We will look at the patterns to see if it will be safe for us to send our search and rescue operations team along the Jukskei to continue with the search,” he said.

The river swept away church members on Saturday during a baptism ceremony near Sandton, north of Johannesburg.

Mulaudzi said they called off the search on Sunday evening after 12 bodies were located. This brought the total number of recovered bodies to 14.

“We have a concern in terms of the number of families who are looking for their loved ones who were here yesterday when they were conducting body identifications,” he said.

“According to that list which they gave us, we might still have three people missing.”

He said the congregants did not have a register in which names were recorded and more bodies could still be missing.

“We don’t know but we are just praying that the weather conditions will allow us to continue with the search this morning.”

Mulaudzi said a woman and a man who were rescued on Saturday afternoon were still in the hospital.

He said emergency services were told the total number of people on site on Saturday conducting the ritual was 33, some of whom managed to get out of the stream. Some congregants had helped to rescue those in trouble. 

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