Durban – Junior Ngwane, 27, the soldier who mysteriously disappeared three-and-a-half years ago in the sea off the KwaZulu-Natal coast has presumably drowned, although his body was never found.
SANDF chief Solly Shoke last week turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, for an order declaring that he presumably died on August 6, 2013. He had gone swimming at Banana Beach with his friends.
The court ordered interested parties to show cause, by May 12, as to why the court should not declare him to be presumably dead.
A copy of the order also had to be published in two daily newspapers in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Ngwane was not heard of, nor seen, since the day he went swimming, but the SANDF had every month deposited his salary into his bank account.
To stop this, and for his family to benefit from his pension, the SANDF needed an order declaring him to be dead.
Shoke said, unless a court issued an order whereby his death was presumed, the SANDF could not terminate his services. Home Affairs also could not issue a death certificate without a court order.
Ngwane, who lived in Soweto, joined the SANDF in 2009. In July 2011 he was accepted to do an Emergency Care Technology course, due to last until the end of August, 2013.
The course included an extensive bush training phase in Limpopo, with the students proposing “an outing” towards the end of the course.
They were due to go to Simon's Town near Cape Town, but the plans changed and they went to the KwaZulu-Natal coast instead for a team-building exercise.
About 38 students arrived there on August 4, 2013 – two days before Ngwane disappeared. On that fateful day the students went to the beach. Some were playing soccer on the beach; others swam in the sea. Ngwane joined them.
One of his teammates, Private Mzamo Nxumalo, later told a board of inquiry that, while they were swimming, they went deeper into the sea. When he noticed that they were too deep, he called to Ngwane and the others to swim ashore.
When they got ashore they noticed Ngwane was still in the same spot. He was struggling in the water and his friends shouted at him to come back. Nxumalo said the next thing Ngwane disappeared under the water and was never seen again.
Another student described the sea as being “violent” and said he and others tried to swim out to their teammate to help him, but they had to turn back because of the rough waves.
There were no lifeguards on duty that day. The Port Shepstone Rescue Unit conducted a search via boat and helicopter, but Ngwane’s body was never recovered.
An SANDF board of inquiry concluded that he had drowned. Shoke said Ngwane never returned home or to his unit and never called his commanding officer or his family.
His remains were also never found. “It can safely be concluded that he drowned,” Shoke said.