Mango pickers find charred remains in Waterloo
|Published
Durban — Men picking mangos from a tree stumbled on a burnt body in Waterloo, Verulam on Sunday.
Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) spokesperson Prem Balram said that at approximately 11.40am, a former municipal councillor called Rusa asking for help after the body was found.
He said that when reaction officers arrived on the scene along the Umdloti Beach Road, they interviewed several men who were in the area picking mangoes.
The men stumbled on the body and contacted the local councillor who contacted the Rusa Operations Centre.
“Upon closer inspection, officers found that the body was burnt beyond recognition. Sex and race could not be immediately established,” Balram said.
“An orange tow rope was found in the vicinity of the body.”
Balram added that since Christmas Day, Rusa responded to multiple murders, rapes, robberies, shootings, suicides and stabbings in eThekwini and surrounding region.
He said that several incidents, images, body cam footage and details have been withheld from the public because of sensitivity.
He said the Rusa Operations Centre has become inundated with calls from family and friends trying to find or identify bodies recovered.
Balram also said that reaction officers are limiting information and images released to the public that could jeopardise investigations.
Police have been approached for comment.
The discovery comes after a decomposed body was found in Missionlands, Verulam on Friday.
Rusa reported that an extensively decomposed body was discovered on Estuary Drive in Missionlands on Friday morning.
The discovery was made after a pedestrian contacted Rusa reporting a pungent smell emanating from a bush at the base of a steep embankment.
“First responders confirmed that the body of a man was in the overgrown vegetation. The SAPS Search and Rescue Unit was called out to recover the extensively decomposed body,” Rusa said.
It could not be confirmed whether the deceased was murdered or died of natural causes.
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