With the assistance of the South African Police Service (SAPS) drone pilots, cybercrime unit, HAWKS, Crime and counter-intelligence unit, SAPS and Gauteng Traffic Airwing as well as the Bidvest Protea Coin Airwing, police first found pieces of vehicle parts believed to be of a VW polo along the N1.

Police were then led to the banks of the river where they found a Renault Kangoo panel van.  

“Our SAPS and Tshwane divers immediately commenced with the search, where we discovered two bodies, one of the driver of the Renault panel van who it just came to light that he is one of our employees attached to the Lyttleton Police Station and the second body was that of Constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark.

“This morning, the third body was discovered which is believed to be that of Constable Linda. We further found a fourth decomposed body; we are still trying to identify who this person is. Later this afternoon, we sadly found the fifth body of Constable Buys,” said the Commissioner.

The families were taken to the mortuary where they have identified the bodies of the officials.

“We are still searching for the VW Polo and our investigation is continuing. We don’t want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not, our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle.

“We would like to thank the families, and the task team involved in the search for working tirelessly to ensure a breakthrough in this case,” he said.

The Commissioner said police were hoping for a positive outcome in the case.