Waterfall plunge kills woman

A 35- YEAR- old woman fell 110m to her death down Howick Falls in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday morning.

“Rescue workers abseiled to the bottom of the falls where the woman was found,” Vanessa Jackson of ER24 said.

“They pulled her from the water and it was evident that she had already succumbed to the massive traumatic injuries that she had sustained. Her remains were placed in a specialised basket stretcher and pulled up to the top.”

Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said the details surrounding the woman’s fall were unclear and would be investigated.

Naicker said Howick police had opened an inquest docket.

However, people close to the scene spoke of her having left a cellphone and a R20 note at the top of the falls, a spot where women from the nearby Shiyabazali informal settlement frequently wash clothes.

Howick Falls has woven into its history a number of suicides and attempted suicides, many of which are written up on an information board for tourists.

In June last year, a fireman rescued a woman spotted by tourism volunteers from the viewpoint as she edged her way through the fast-flowing water towards the lip of the waterfall.

The woman had just come from the local magistrate’s court where a case involving a dispute in her family had been heard.