Video: Healer walks out of dam alive
The traditional healer suspected of drowning in Loskop Dam on Tuesday 30 September, was found alive and well by police on Thursday 02 October.
Four SAPS divers, and members of the dog unit, wasted two full days and a lot of resources to find the body of Mr. Thabethe Lawrence.
The value of the excursion still have to be determined but it is believed to tally an astronomic sum.
According to an eyewitness, and friend, Mr. James Makola (63), Mr Lawrence went to the dam to perform a traditional ritual to cleanse himself of his sins “or face Satan”.
Makola went to the Dam with Thabethe, to perform the ritual together, but Mr Makola got scared and waited for his friend on the staircase that leads to the Dam.
“While I waited I heard Thabethe call: ‘Whoooo!” a shocked and confused Mr. Makola told the Observer on Tuesday. Under the impression that his friend had drowned, Makola ran away towards the dam wall.
When Mr Lawrence did not appear, Makola ran to the road and succeeded in flagging down a car.
The driver phoned the police and rescue teams who rushed from as far afield as Nelspruit to attend. Nine rescuers, including four divers from Nelspruit, launched a desperate search.
The clouds and wind didn’t make it any easier. On Thursday afternoon the team went back to search but sergeant Leon Harrington’s retrieval dog, Tara, could not pick up a scent.
Divers searched the entire dam, but nothing could be found. “Tarra just couldn’t pinpoint a scent,” said sergeant Harrington, adding that there were two similar Mhluzi incidents that he attended last year.
Sadly, the healers involved in the other incidents, weren’t as lucky. “We could have attended other cases,” an upset police colleague of Harrington said on Thursday morning, shortly after Thabethe was found.
According to police who attended the scene on Wednesday night, Thabathe was found dry and well next to the dam, cell phone in hand. He insisted that he miraculously climbed out of the dam more than 24-hours after he supposedly fell in.
“It’s all an act he never jumped into the Dam,” policemen said.
•Watch the video where Mr. James Makola tells his side:
