- Johannesburg Emergency Medical Services recovered the body of a member of the 15th congregation who drowned in the Jukskei River over the weekend.
- EMS spokesman Robert Mulaudzi says the search and rescue team will resume the search for a missing three-month-old baby on Thursday.
- The baby is one of three members of the same family who drowned during a baptism ceremony.
Johannesburg Emergency Medical Services (EMS) recovered the body of a 15th person who was part of a group of worshipers washed away during a christening ceremony over the weekend, spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said on Wednesday.
The search and rescue team will resume the search for a three-month-old baby, who is missing, on Thursday.
“We hope that if luck is on our side, we will get the baby back and give the family some closure,” Mulaudzi said.
He could not confirm the sex of the baby.
Mulaudzi said the baby, believed to be dead, was at the time with his three-year-old brother and grandmother, whose bodies were recovered.
“The boy is the third missing person from the same family.”
He said 33-year-old Thokozani Sibanda, whose family said his photo was not among those of parishioners on display at the morgue, had also been found.
READ | Jukskei river baptism drownings: Informal ‘church’ pastor goes ashore
“They couldn’t find her in the morgue, and they had gone looking for the hospitals where they couldn’t find her. They returned to the morgue and found her. for the three-month-old child.
Parishioners were swept away on Saturday during a baptism ceremony.
Its pastor allegedly used the river to perform rituals for parishioners who came to him for consultation.
Mulaudzi said the search for the group went faster than usual, which he attributed to the joint efforts of police and EMS.
“Normally it takes eight to nine days to recover bodies, but this one was fast. We managed to recover two bodies on the first day.”
“On the second day, we did extremely well because we recovered 12 bodies on the same day, and today we recovered one. We have helped families find closure,” he added.
