DEADLY WATERS
Community in shock as dangerous river swallows village man
The time is 0700 hrs on the 13th April 2024 when Tumelo Mashele Mokgethisi (35) walks through the gates of his grandmother’s home in Ntlhantlhe village in the Ngwaketse area.
He is highly spirited as usual and walks towards his cousin Malefo Tshekoeng (42) who is busy kindling a fire in the outdoor fireplace constructed from tree branches.
Mashele, as the man is affectionately known, begins telling his cousin of how he intends to spend his day enjoying adult beverages and nothing else.
“What are you on about? How can you be talking about binging on alcohol so early in the morning, you have not eaten anything? What if you collapse in front of people because of hunger?” the cousin responds.
Knowing that he is about to be given a lecture, Mashele walks away before his mood gets spoiled. Malefo says that his cousin was not a man of many words. Always said what he wanted to say and preserved his peace. And as he walks away, the cousin continues making the fire ignoring Mashele. After all that was his cousin, always coming and going.
But little did he know that on that particular day, he was seeing his cousin alive for the last time. “I went to play soccer and when I returned home around 1800hrs in the evening, I was met with shocking news that Mashele had allegedly drowned in the river,” Malefo told e Midweek Sun this week.
Mashele’s Uncle Skane Tshekoeng (70) who had spent the day at home, chipped in to explain that
Mashele returned home around 1600hrs visibly intoxicated. “He changed clothes, leaving those he was wearing during the day scattered on the ground. He then left,” Tshekoeng said, adding that at the time, his nephew was in the company of a female friend. An hour later, the female friend returned asking if the family knew where Mashele was. “I was perplexed and a bit offended, wondering why she was asking such questions when she had left with him literally minutes earlier. I ignored her and that is when she informed us that rumour was rife in the village that Mashele had drowned.” Not only had Mashele disappeared inside the waters, he was inside the most feared river of them all in the village, the Molopye River. is is a river in which villagers believe, from long back, resides a very huge snake!
At this point, the buzz in the village was intensifying. News was spreading like veldt fire of how the infamous snake had swallowed Mashele. is left Malefo with no choice but to sprint towards the river where he found people gathered. ey had different theories about what had happened. But one thing was certain - the fear of the unknown was visible in their eyes. It was at the river where Malefo got a more detailed version of what had really happened. “We are informed he found children playing near the river and told them to disperse. He is alleged to have told them that there was a snake in the river and they should play far from it.
e children obeyed and began walking away. But they stopped on their tracks when they heard the man begin talking.
“I hear there is a snake here, it will know me today, let me see it, I am going in.”
He then walked inside the river and a few steps in, he was choking in the water.
“Help me! Please help me!” those are alleged to have been Mashele’s last words.
Spooked, the children ran home to inform elders of what had happened and the police were called.
Station Commander at Woodhall Police Daniel Katse said they received the report around 1700hrs and immediately informed the relevant police department trained to handle drowning incidents. Unfortunately, it was already late which meant that the search for Mashele inside the river could only be done in the morning. “We spent the night by the river guarding it and around 0700hrs the next day, scuba divers arrived and the man was retrieved from the river. He was certified dead upon arrival at Athlone hospital in Lobatse,” Katse said. He added that because of the recent rains, water levels increased posing a threat to members of the community. “I can only caution people to be careful; it is not advisable for anyone to try crossing the river when they are not sure about the depth of the river. “We estimate the depth of that river to be around three meters (3m) meaning that not many can survive if they drown. is is not the first time a man drowns in that river, so people should
be careful,” he said.