{"id":229643,"date":"2026-05-11T16:49:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/229643\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:49:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:49:23","slug":"mystery-mans-body-pulled-from-raging-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/229643\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery man’s body pulled from raging river"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n


\n A man believed to be in his mid-40s was found trapped in tree branches in the Caledon River. \n <\/p>\n

UNIDENTIFIED man’s body pulled from the\u00a0Caledon River on Sunday, 10 May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The man, believed to be in his mid-40s, was wearing blue overalls and was barefoot when he was found trapped in tree branches.<\/p>\n

The drama started at around 6.40pm on Saturday evening, 9 May, when a shepherd herding his cattle spotted something floating in the water.<\/p>\n

The shocked man immediately alerted police at the Ficksburg Community Service Centre.<\/p>\n

The Phuthaditjhaba Police Search and Rescue Unit rushed to the scene but were met with extreme challenges. The light was fading fast, and the water was flowing dangerously high.<\/p>\n

The brave divers decided to wait until daybreak on Sunday before attempting the recovery.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | JUST IN: Watch: Ngizwe’s home burnt<\/a><\/p>\n

Working in the forceful current, the team battled for hours before successfully pulling the body out at around 1.40pm.<\/p>\n

Free State police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Thabang Lesia praised the divers for their courage.<\/p>\n

“These divers often operate in near-zero visibility and freezing, turbulent waters, risking their own safety to fulfill a sacred duty: Returning the remains of loved ones to their families so they may find peace and begin the process of mourning,” said Lesia.<\/p>\n

The victim had no visible injuries on his body. Police said anyone with information about the man’s identity should come forward.<\/p>\n

The Caledon River, which forms a natural border between the Free State and Lesotho, has claimed many lives over the years. <\/p>\n

In January 2021, five Basotho migrants drowned while trying to cross illegally into South Africa using inflated mattresses and tyre tubes during flooding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A man believed to be in his mid-40s was found trapped in tree branches in the Caledon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[116951,109736,2506,22480,6188,131,72979],"class_list":{"0":"post-229643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-caledon-river","9":"tag-ficksburg","10":"tag-free-state","11":"tag-missing-person","12":"tag-search-and-rescue","13":"tag-south-africa","14":"tag-unidentified-body"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116556973289030961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}