The families of Linda Cebekhulu, Boipelo Senoge (20) and Keamogetswe Buys have positively identified their loved ones among the five bodies that were discovered in Hennops River, Centurion, on Monday and Tuesday. The three SA Police Service (SAPS) constables went missing last week when they travelled from the Free State to Limpopo, where they had been deployed. The white VW Polo they were travelling in was last seen on video near the Brakfontein interchange in Centurion.

The subsequent search, which was led by a dedicated team of SAPS investigators, brought the authorities to the Hennops River along the N1, where two bodies were found on Monday and three on Tuesday. On Tuesday evening, the national police commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, held a media briefing near where the bodies were found. “We had hoped to find our three police officers safe and unharmed. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It is with deep sorrow that I confirm that our three members have been found together with two other bodies,” said Masemola.

The fifth decomposed body had not yet been identified, but the fourth body, according to the police commissioner, belonged to an administration clerk at Lyttelton Police Station. The circumstances of the officers’ deaths are still being investigated. Masemola said that on Monday, the investigative team found parts of what police believed to be the constables’ VW Polo on the N1 highway bridge over the Hennops River just after the Brakfontein interchange. The guardrail on the bridge was damaged, indicating that the Polo may have struck it. However, Masemola said that uncovering what exactly occurred hinged on locating the vehicle. “We don’t want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not.

Our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle,” he said. Cebekhulu’s body was found on Monday, while Buys and Senoge’s bodies were found on Tuesday. Families arrive at the location. “The last time I spoke to Boipelo was on Wednesday night when they were leaving for Polokwane,” said Paul Senoge, Boipelo Senego’s father. “I put her bags in the car for her and said goodbye. Now here I am today, and I just had to identify my child’s body.” Her mother, Jane Senoge, was visibly shaken and struggled to hold back tears as SAPS officers showed them the suspected accident site. “You will never understand how it feels to find the body of someone you have been desperately looking for. I was not thinking about the investigations, I just wanted to find my baby, that’s all.

It is so painful to lose a child as young as Boipelo,” she said. The other organs Monday’s search also uncovered a Renault panel van which belonged to the Lyttelton Police Station clerk. Masemola said the clerk’s wife told police that he had visited friends in the area on Saturday afternoon but did not return home. A passer-by spotted the vehicle in the river and alerted police, leading to the discovery of the body. The body was discovered some distance down the river. It may have entered at another point because the place where he had gonna to visit his friends is more towards Waterkloof Air Force Base,” said Masemola.

He said that there was no evidence that the contables’ bodies were linked to the clerk or the unidentified body and that a case of culpable homicide had been opened