The body of the woman who was swept away by a swollen Braamfonteinspruit in Parkhurst on Monday was recovered in Bryanston, Johannesburg, early on Tuesday afternoon.
Two police sniffer dogs located the body of 36-year-old Jennifer Manale 15km down the spruit a day after she was overwhelmed by floodwaters.
Without the dogs, Manale’s body would have gone unseen by both foot and air searchers, said police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman.
The body was trapped under the Bryanston Drive bridge over the stream, and hidden completely beneath a heap of broken tree trunks and leaves.
The two dogs picked up the scent of the body and led rescue workers to the spot where they extracted it from the water at 2pm, said Opperman.
Manale, from Rustenburg, lost her footing in the spruit’s rushing water while crossing it with her sons, Tumi (15) and Lethabo (seven), during a cloudburst on Monday afternoon.
They had been on their way to visit the children’s grandmother, Maggie Kenosi (56), in Parkhurst.
A ”rather large woman”, Manale would have had trouble staying afloat with the water probably racing along at between 7m and 10m a second, said Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley.
Manale was found to have sustained a major head injury and several bruises and scrapes on her arms and legs. She was wearing only her underwear and her wedding ring when she was pulled out of the water. Possibly her dress was torn off by the force of the water, he said.
Immediately after her body was found, her husband was brought to the scene and then her mother, Kenosi, to identify her. They were taking her death badly and had the support of both a chaplain and a trauma counsellor, said Midgley.
The incident comes less than a week after Mark Strydom (12), his brother Kallie Strydom (13) and their friend Kyle Hasson (13) were swept to their deaths down the Jukskei River during a flash flood while seeking shelter under a bridge near Ellis Park. — Sapa