When seven total strangers came across a mother and her young child screaming for help from a flooded Centurion low water bridge, there was no time to think about personal safety. They immediately linked arms to form a human chain and pulled the pair from the raging water.
Schoolteacher Wimpie Nel, who lives in Centurion, was on his way home when he was flagged down by two men on Wednesday night.
With the help of two other motorists, two firemen and one of the men who had raised the alarm - and who it turns out cannot swim - they battled chest-high water to rescue the five-year-old girl and her mother who were clinging for their lives to a tree.
The action of Nel and his fellow rescuers was just one of several incidents of heroism showed by ordinary residents during this week’s deluge.
Hours before the dramatic rescue involving Nel, Lyttelton teaching assistant Given Sindane saved the life of a Lyttelton Manor High School boy when he pulled him from underneath a tree in Centurion moments before a bolt of lightning struck the tree.
Neither Nel nor Sindane, who would both like to meet those that they saved and other rescuers, consider their actions heroic.
Nel, a former policeman with 20 years service, said: “I was doing what any other person would do. I am not extraordinary and don’t consider myself a hero.”
Nel said he was driving home when he was stopped by two men near a low-lying bridge between the Irene Dairy Farm and Centurion Golf Club.
“They were terrified. They told me that they had tried to stop the woman driving onto the bridge, but that she had refused to listen to them,” said Nel, describing how he had watched the woman frantically trying to turn her car around and drive off the bridge.
Nel said when he realised that the woman was in trouble he ran back to his car to get a tow rope.
Unable to find one he returned to the bridge where he waded into the water to try and get to the woman.
Yelling at her to get herself and her daughter out of the car and move towards a nearby tree, Nel watched in horror as moments after taking her child our of her vehicle, it was washed off the bridge.
“When I saw that happen I knew that there was no time to waste.”
Running back to his car, Nel telephoned the fire brigade before stopping two other motorists and getting them to help him with the rescue.
Forming a human chain, the men managed to reach the woman and her daughter, who was screaming and crying, and carried the girl to safety.
With the help of firemen and one of the men who had stopped Nel, the rescuers went back for the mother.
“We didn’t think about it, we just did it. We knew that if we didn’t the woman would die,” said Nel.
Nel said it was only after they had rescued the woman and her child that they realised that the man who had raised the alarm was unable to swim.
“If anyone is the hero it is him. He could have died, but he was prepared to put his life in harm’s way to help us help the woman and her child,” he said.
He said the only thing he knew about the woman was that she and her child were from Kempton Park and had been in Centurion visiting a friend when they got caught on the low bridge.
Standing next to fellow rescuer, Daniel Motsoeneng, Nel said he was grateful that they were able to help.
“We did what we needed to do. We were in the right place at the right time,” he said.
Motsoeneng said if it had not been for Nel’s initiative and being the first into the water, none of the others would have helped. “What this man did is honourable. He is a real hero and did a lot to help organise us and get us to save the mother and daughter,” said Motsoeneng, who despite not being able to swim, went into the raging torrent to help rescue the mother and her daughter.
Meanwhile, describing how he had saved the Lyttelton Manor High School boy, Sindane said he had not thought about it.
“When I saw him standing wet under the tree on the corner of Cantonment and Monument streets and heard the thunder I knew I had to get him away from the tree. Something just told me to get him away from the tree as quickly as possible.”
It was as the teenager walked away from underneath the tree that a lightning bolt struck, hitting a pole next to the tree before striking the tree.
“It happened so quickly I don’t think either of us really knew what happened. There was a massive noise and bright flash and then it was over,” he said.
Sindane said they were both very shaken.
“If I hadn’t called the boy who ran off in fright after the lightning strike, he could have been killed. I guess it was just being in the right place at the right time that he is alive ,” he said, adding that he had persuaded the boy to come to him to use his umbrella.
Tshwane Emergency Services spokesman Johan Pieterse confirmed the rescue of the mom and daughter and said that moments after they were rescued, their car was washed into the river. - Pretoria News