The City of Joburg emergency management services (EMS) and police have retrieved the second body after two young people were washed away during a cleansing ritual.
The discovery on Friday morning comes 48 hours after the body of a female was recovered, days after she disappeared in the river on Saturday.
EMS spokesperson Xolile Khumalo said the body of an unidentified male was recovered a few kilometres from where the body of the female was located on Wednesday.
“After bearing scorching heat and contaminated water for six days, EMS and the SA Police Service operational teams have recovered the body of a male a few kilometers from where the female body was recovered two days ago,” said Khumalo.
“We are waiting for the body to be identified.
“EMS continues to urge the community of Johannesburg, traditional healers and Amakhosi to practise caution when performing ceremonies and rituals at rivers.”
Khumalo said the body of an 18-year-old female, who has been positively identified by her family, was recovered in Kliprivier on the N1 bridge.
On Sunday, the EMS’ aquatic rescue unit and police’s water wing begun the search for an 18-year-old woman and 21-year-old man.
Death traps
The pair was swallowed by the water along the river stream in Olifantsvlei in the south of Johannesburg.
Sunday World reported earlier in the year that rivers seem to have become death traps following a spate of drownings during baptism rituals.
The South African Council of Churches’ (SACC) leadership told the paper at the time that it had no authority to intervene and prescribe how the practice should be conducted.
The matter was disputed by a church leader of one of the churches, who described the SACC’s position as “a cop out”.
According to a survey conducted by Sunday World for the period between 2017 and New Year’s Eve 2022, at least 38 congregants and pastors drowned during river baptisms.
These baptisms and deaths shocked many people, especially after 14 congregants of Masowe church drowned at the Jukskei River in Alexandra in December 2022.
The survey revealed that most of these drownings happened in Gauteng, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and the Free State.
SACC general secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana said at the time: “It must be noted [that] the SACC has member churches of many diverse traditions, who in accordance with their traditions and beliefs elect to conduct their baptisms in various bodies of water such as rivers, baptism pools, swimming pools or in the church with a small amount of water poured on the forehead.
“It is therefore a matter of the individual member church’s faith tradition that would dictate which method of baptism they prefer.
“Simply put, baptism is a doctrinal matter, and as the SACC we do not pronounce on that to any church”.
