As the summer season approaches, the City of Johannesburg emergency management services (EMS) warned residents about the drownings that have killed hundreds of people over the years.
According to the EMS, the city sees a rise in drownings throughout the summer months.
This is a result of residents conducting ceremonies and purification rituals in rivers and children swimming unattended.
“Local congregations and religious leaders need to know safety measures that they need to take when performing rituals and ceremonies in the rivers,” said EMS spokesperson Xolile Khumalo.
The EMS has launched a water safety campaign at Lonehill, Juskei and Stone River, educating residents of Johannesburg about water safety.
“Before performing ceremonies and rituals in streams, EMS advises the locals to check the weather,” Khumalo added.
In November 2023, two bodies of young people who were washed away during a cleansing ritual were discovered.
No authority to intervene
Meanwhile, the South African Council of Churches’ (SACC) leadership said it still has no authority to intervene and prescribe how the practice should be conducted.
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.”
The matter was disputed by a church leader of one of the churches, who described the SACC’s position as “a cop out”.
At least 38 churchgoers and pastors drowned during river baptisms, according to a survey by Sunday World for the time period between 2017 and New Year’s Eve 2022.
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 shows that most of the drownings happened in Gauteng, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and the Free State.
