By Everson Luhanga
- Police confirmed that the bodies of three missing constables and two others were found in the Hennops River.
- Investigators are still searching for the officers’ missing VW Polo and have not ruled out foul play.
All three police constables who went missing on Wednesday have been found dead.
Constables Cebekhulu Linda, Keamogetswe Buys and Boipelo Senoge disappeared after travelling from Bloemfontein to their area of deployment in Limpopo. Their bodies were found in the Hennops River in Centurion near Pretoria, Gauteng.
National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola confirmed the grim discovery on Tuesday evening.
He said the families identified the officers at the Pretoria mortuary.
“The bodies were found together with two other bodies, one being an admin clerk attached to our Lyttleton police station,” said Masemola.
He said that on Monday their investigation led them to the Hennops River after studying footage from highway cameras.
General Masemola added that parts of a VW vehicle were found along the N1 highway. The search continues for the rest of the car.
He said there is no link at this stage between one of the decomposing bodies and the deaths of the three police officers.
Masemola confirmed that the fourth body found in the river belonged to a groundman working at Lyttleton police station who had gone missing over the weekend. His partner had not reported him missing, believing he would return.
Police said they cannot yet assume whether the three officers were targeted.
“We are still searching for the VW Polo and our investigation is continuing,” said Masemola.
“We do not want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in the river, whether it was an accident or not. Our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle.”
Masemola thanked the families and the task team involved in the search for working tirelessly on the case.
“This is not how we expected this case to unfold. We were hoping for a positive outcome. Be that as it may, we are relieved that we could provide the painful closure to the families and the broader SAPS family,” he said.
The officers had been travelling from the Free State where they were celebrating Cebekhulu’s birthday.
The officers were deployed on the on-going national Vala Umgodi operations. The operation deals with clamping down on illegal mining across the country.
Police had offered a R350,000 reward for information on their whereabouts.
Police say they are investigating a case of culpable homicide.
Pictured above: The three police Constables who were found dead in Hennops River in Centurion near Pretoria.
Image source: National SAPS
