Four young boys have drowned this week including a five-year-old and nine-year-old who died, while an 18-month-old baby and a three-year-old toddler are in a critical condition in hospital.
Five-year-old Mvelo Gumede was reported missing on Wednesday after he disappeared while playing outside his home in Lotusville, KwaZulu-Natal. Gumede was found floating in a neighbour’s pool the following day.
The boy’s father had contacted the Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) for assistance and the search for the boy was launched before being called off on Wednesday evening. It resumed at dawn on Thursday.
Prem Balram from the reaction unit said: “While Rusa members were conducting a search in the area, they were informed by a resident that a child was floating in his pool.
“The members of the reaction unit and Rusa medics proceeded to the property where the missing child was discovered floating face down in the pool. The medics retrieved the body from the pool and declared him deceased shortly thereafter.”
In another case, a nine-year-old boy died while swimming with friends in the river in Ndwedwe, KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.
Medical Rescue spokesperson Dylan Meyrick said early on Wednesday evening the IPSS medical rescue and IPSS search and rescue team, joined by the police’s K9 search and rescue team responded to a report of a drowning in the Ndwedwe area.
Meyrick said: “Initial reports indicated that a nine-year-old boy was swimming with friends in the river when he disappeared under the water.”
In Randburg, Johannesburg , two boys, an 18 month-old and a three-year-old, were airlifted to the hospital after they drowned at a family swimming pool on Tuesday afternoon.
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