11 Mar 2014

Three people died when the boat they were using capsized in the middle of Thamalakane River on Saturday, March 8.

The station commander, Superintendent Kenanao Badumetse said in an interview that the dead included a two-year old baby, a five-year old and a 10-year-old pupil at Sekgoma Primary School.

He said the incident took place at Sexaxa settlement between 1830 and 1900 hours on Saturday evening and that the deceased together with three others were crossing the river from Xakayanare settlement. He said 11 people had queued to cross the river and a certain man who owned the canoe offered to help.

Superintendent Badumetse said the canoe owner managed to transport the first five and he decided to give the boat to one man whose family was still on the other side of the river and it was the wife, a two year-old baby and five-year-old twins and a 10-year-old boy who was their neighbour.

He said the canoe capsized in the middle of the river and the canoe owner heard them screaming. Superintendent Badumetse said the owner took another boat and managed to rescue, the man, his wife as well as the other twin sister  and retrieved the body of a two year-old baby.

He said the 10-year-old boy and the other twin’s bodies were nowhere to be seen and their bodies were only retrieved the following day (Sunday) through the assistance of the community, police and the Botswana Defence Force scuba divers.

The first body, that of the twin, was retrieved around 0845, 20 metres from where the incident took place. Superintendent Badumetse said the other was retrieved around 1115 hours.

The corpses were taken to Letsholathebe Memorial Hospital where they were certified dead. He said they suspected that the canoe was over loaded as they found some water melons inside.

He said incidents of drowning were increasing in his policing area, indicating further that there were few bridges and yet most of the settlements were across the river. He said the police had recorded a high number of such incidents from the previous years to date.

Superintendent Badumetse appealed to the public to use reliable boats, stop overloading and navigating the river at night. He urged boat owners to only lend their boats to people who were capable of using them. ENDS