A memorial service for slain South African swimmer Kenneth Smith will be held at the Parktown Boys’ High School hall in Johannesburg at 1pm on Wednesday, said his family.
”The service will be led by former Springbok breaststroke ace, Pastor Herman Nienaber,” Smith’s father Neville said in a statement late on Tuesday night.
Smith’s body was found in a plastic bag on the outskirts of Peshawar on Sunday. Pakistani police said he had arrived at the Peshawar Airport on January 22.
”While there has been much negative speculation as to the reasons and cause of death, according to official sources it is suspected that he was poisoned,” his father said.
”Tissue samples have been forwarded to Karachi for forensic analysis to confirm the nature of poisoning.
”Once the findings are available the family will release a further statement,” he said.
”In the interim, the family requests that they be given time to come to terms with the passing of a much loved family member and let the official process follow its course.”
Smith said his 26-year-old son would always be remembered as a highly competitive but humble individual who excelled not only on the sports field, but academically too.
”A natural ball-player, it was a tough decision that he had to make as a youngster to commit to the rigours of the sport of swimming.
”He ultimately devoted 18 years of his life to the sport that saw him become South Africa’s most successful and most capped open-water swimming athlete.”
Smith said the family approached the Department of Foreign Affairs on Sunday after learning that a man killed in northern Pakistan was carrying a passport with his son’s name and was thought to be from Durban — where his son had lived with him from November 2000 until March 2004.
The department’s officials in Islamabad helped identify the body and facilitated its repatriation, he said, thanking them for their prompt and efficient handling of the matter.
Earlier on Tuesday, Smith told the Star that he had identified his son’s body through photographs supplied by the department on Monday.
”He was very badly beaten up and authorities strongly suspect that he died of a brain haemorrhage… It was very clear on the images that his face was swollen,” he reportedly said.
He dismissed as ”completely untrue” reports that his son had been shot in the back of the head. – Sapa