A family holiday to Namibia ended in tragedy on Tuesday last week when a church minister from Modimolle (Nylstroom) fought in vain to rescue his youngest brother from the jaws of a crocodile, News24 reported.
On Thursday, police divers called off the search for Mannetjies Coetzer, a businessman from Heidelberg, who had gone swimming on Tuesday morning in the Kunene River on the boarder of Namibia and Angola.
A crocodile, presumed to be a Nile crocodile, got hold of him under water.
The Johannesburg daily Beeld learned from a reliable source that Lukas Coetzer, dominee of the NG Kerk in Nylstroom East, saw a ”whirlpool” in the water and jumped in to try to save his brother.
Apparently, the two brothers — the eldest and youngest of four children — had swum in the river a little while earlier.
The source said: ”He [the minister] apparently wrestled with the crocodile, poked his fingers in its eyes and forced his arm down its throat, but had to let go when he could no longer hold his breath. He did not see his brother again.”
Coetzer went to call his family for help, but when they got back to the river, they saw only the crocodile’s eyes above the water. — Sapa