A man drowned and a second is missing after scavenging for valuables such as lost jewellery in Durban’s sewerage pipes.
|||Durban - A man drowned, a second is missing and two were rescued while scavenging for valuables such as lost jewellery in Durban’s sewerage pipes near Merebank on Tuesday.
Bhayo Mnqayi’s body was pulled from an effluent canal by an eThekweni Municipality worker. Two of the dead man’s friends were rescued. The police said another, unidentified man, was missing.
Police spokesman Jay Naicker said they had cordoned off the scene after Mnqayi’s body was found.
Ntuthuko Gumede surfaced alive in the rapidly flowing canal and was pulled to safety by the police. Municipal workers had earlier pulled Sphamandla Khanyile to safety.
Naicker confirmed that the four men were in the sewerage pipe in the Merebank canal using torches to search for gold and diamonds. They apparently slipped and landed in the fast flowing effluent.
He said Mnqayi was confirmed dead by paramedics who were called to the scene.
Khanyile was recovering in Wentworth Hospital.
Attempts by The Mercury to interview Khanyile were unsuccessful on Wednesday as Wentworth Hospital spokeswoman Carol Dlamini said he was traumatised.
Naicker said a fourth man was still missing. Rescue workers had searched for him in vain
.
He said the pipes had not been vandalised, although the city was plagued by “treasure hunters” who often smashed sewerage pipes and caused hundreds of thousands of rand in damage and pollution to the environment.
In this case the rescued men had confessed to the police they were after treasure.
They would not be charged, but an inquest docket had been opened, Naicker said.
Fishermen, who did not want to be named, said on Wednesday they had noticed people “working” and “looking” inside the pipes, but did not know what the men were doing.
After an incident in May, when treasure hunters destroyed pipes, eThekwini’s head of water and sanitation Neil Macleod said it was “impossible” to have security guards permanently monitoring the pipes because there were too many.
The Mercury