High-pitched yelps ring out from K9 Zeus as police search and rescue (SAR) members quickly shift their undivided attention to the vicinity of the five-year-old Belgian Shepherd.
A foul smell fills the air as the wind changes course amid calls from K9 Zeus which reverberate through the gorge of uMzinyathi Falls, north of Durban.
“Soek hom, soek hom ...” Zeus’s handler, a seasoned police member from the Middelburg K9 unit, calls out.
Situated in a ditch, surrounded by a mass of broken and flattened underbrush lay the lifeless body of a child.
“Body?” one of the crew shouts from across the river. His colleague, portraying a defeated demeanour, signals with a series of hand gestures — likely code for child.
“A child? I don’t want to see,” another SAR member says as the majority of the 10-man team converges on the body.
We remain a wounded province and a bleeding nation ... It is a tragedy and a catastrophe that will linger in memory for a very long time.
— KZN premier Sihle Zikalala
The emotional effect of recovering the body of a child, one of scores who remain unaccounted for after the deadly deluge that swept across parts of eThekwini last week, was evident in the faces of many of the members.
While emotions were subtly concealed, the physical challenge of navigating treacherous terrain, avoiding a substantial amount of well-camouflaged thorns and wading through frigid waters was evident as slippery rocks gave way to broken branches beneath the murky river.
The crew, comprising of police, the K9 unit SAR and The Gift of The Givers SAR members, were deployed to the area on Tuesday morning to scour the river at the foot of the waterfall which had swollen to enormous proportions during the torrential rains last week.
Carrying the child’s remains to the top of the valley was out of the question, the steep and physically demanding ascent making it a risk no one was willing to take.
A SA National Defence Force chopper was radioed and provided with GPS co-ordinates to hoist the body to the top of the gorge.
Medical gloves fastened tightly around their hands, two members prepared the body, carefully placing it in a watertight body bag as the sounds of helicopter blades grew louder as it slowly circled in and hovered above the muddy water.
Debris was tossed in every direction as water flew into the air and swung around like a mini tornado — this wasn’t just any chopper, this was a military grade beast of a machine.
A member of Metro Police SAR parasailed down as the body was placed in a stretcher and moved across the river via a human chain of SAR members.
It had been four hours since the crew began their search and after their first recovery they casually continued down river and out of sight.
A forensic pathology vehicle arrived later to collect the body.
“A little girl; she looks about six if I had to estimate,” a health official told Sunday Times Daily.
At least six people are believed to be missing in the area.
Despite reinforcements being deployed to the province, search and rescue crews are fatigued, with 72 people still missing.
The unidentified child is one of 448 people who died when waves of heavy rain flooded parts of the province, displacing 40,000 people and disrupting about 16,672 households.
“We remain a wounded province and a bleeding nation ... It is a tragedy and a catastrophe that will linger in memory for a very long time,” said KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala.
About 48 police crews, consisting of SAP search and rescue (SAR), K9 SAR and pilots from the air wing unit from across the country have been deployed to assist help in recovery operations.
Efforts to locate those unaccounted for have been bolstered by the deployment of SANDF personnel, after a state of national disaster was declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Twelve SANDF teams are stationed in the province to assist in delivering food parcels and searches.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.