Durban - Police Search and Rescue Units walked through waist-deep water on Monday searching for a boy who drowned in a river in KwaDengezi on Sunday.
The distraught Phewa family of KwaNdengezi, friends and onlookers wait anxiously for any news if the boy is been found. They congregated on the banks of the Umlazi River that flows through the area.
Nine-year-old Nkanyiso Phewa drowned on Sunday while playing with his friends in the water.
Rescue units had began searching shortly after 10 am. The five-man team were checking the crevices and tributaries to the river for any sign of the boy.
The river was flowing rapidly. The family believe the boy might have floated downriver overnight.
Fikile Phewa, the boy's mother, cried uncontrollably as she sat surrounded by family and friends on the river bank.
She said they were exhausted because they had sat on the river's edge since Sunday.
The river is along Old Richmond Road at the entrance to KwaNdengezi.
Police Search and Rescue Units walked through waist-deep water on Monday searching for a boy who drowned in a river in KwaDengezi on Sunday. Video: Zainul Dawood.
His aunt Mpume Mthembu said he had been swimming with three other boys when he got into difficulty.
Two of the boys were pulled managed to swim out but he drowned.
Police searched the river on Sunday but due to poor light had to abandon the search.
The family's tears were compounded by community chatter that a snake might be grasping onto Nkanyiso.
While Police Search and Rescue Units searched, the family who is seated on the riverbank heard that a boy who had drowned several years ago in the same spot was grabbed by a snake.
The myth claims that the snake was hiding under a rock crevice and was known to target goats that crossed the river.