Diving in to recover bodies in EC where professionals keep failing
Two Mthatha community members volunteer to pull drowned kids from dams and rivers. By
They have dreams about dead people, but these nightmares have not stopped two community rescue divers from doing their dangerous jobs to bring closure to those who have lost loved ones to drowning.
They are not employed, not trained and do not get paid, but when the call for help comes, they answer.
“Carrying a dead body in your arms is hard. It affects you. That picture of the dead person haunts you in your dreams. But I love what I am doing.”
This is how Mthatha rescue diver Thandeka Komeni (34) describes her work.
When there is a drowning, she and her colleague Nkosiyethu Zimasi (25), who both live in Joe Slovo Park, are the ones that people call to recover the bodies of family members. More often than not it is the remains of children.
“It is difficult and dangerous but we do because of our love for the community.
“The body of a dead person is very heavy. Sometimes when you are inside the water looking for the body, trying to touch the body, you are not sure whether you are touching a snake or a person. Let me tell you those are difficult times,” Komeni said.
“I love what I am doing and I wish we could get assistance from the government or private companies to get proper training and working resources so that we can put food on the table in our homes.
“Last year a child drowned here in the Mthatha Dam and professional divers from
it the government came and looked for the body for two days and they didn’t find the body.
“On the third day we went in. We came out with the body.”
Working for the community
Mthatha West residents say they call these two when they have a drowning as the government’s professional divers often fail to retrieve bodies.
Komeni said she first started recovering the bodies of drowning victims in 2011 after a group of children, including her sister’s son, cried for help when one of their friends had drowned.
“At the time the police were called to the scene and told community members that the divers will come here the following day to look for the drowned child. But we didn’t want to wait. We went in and we found that child’s body. That is how I started looking for drowned people,” Komeni said.
“In the same week another child coming from school was also drowned in the Cicira River and my friend Nkosiyethu Zimasi found the body.”
Komeni said what pushes them to do this is the love they have for their community and the residents who believe in what they are doing.
“Sometimes we told them that what we are doing is not safe. We do not have protective gear. But always we end up agreeing to go. There are times when our skins break out after we retrieve the children and we have to take ourselves to the doctor.”
For the love of the community
Zimasi dives alongside Komeni. Zimasi’s mother, Nonkuthalo Mabhongo, said she is proud of the job done by her son, who sacrifices his time for the love of the community.
She has seen Zimasi carry out the bodies of dead children three times.
“I always get emotional,” she said. “He is doing a great job.”
Zimasi’s brother, Zimasa Qwesha, said his younger brother has recovered six bodies from the Mthatha Dam and Cicira River.
“This shows that my brother has a skill of recovering drowned people though he didn’t go to school for this. He is carrying corpses ... and sometimes I think about how this must affect him mentally,” he said.
Qwesha said the diving pair needs equipment and psychological support.
“They are working tirelessly, but the painful part is they are not compensated for what they are doing and I wish someone can recognise them and assist them with work because they love what they are doing,” he added.
“This is a very big risk for them and one day I refused to let him go to assist the community because I was thinking about his life, but community members gathered here at home pleading with the family to release him and we released him later.
“We fear for their lives every time they go but they love what they are doing.”
He said once the entire community gathered at Mthatha Dam where a child had drowned. “There was no hope. Professional divers had been looking for the body for three days and they gave up. But these two then said they will go in and they brought the child home.
“When they were inside the water I was praying for them, calling my ancestors and fearing they may not return.
“But when I saw Nkosiyethu with the child in his arms, I celebrated like a young boy. That is the moment I will never forget,” Qwesha said.
I love what I am doing and I wish we could get assistance from government or private companies to get proper training and working
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