Frank Maponya

Frank Maponya

The bodies of five men retrieved from the Tubatse River at Burgersfort in Limpopo have still not been identified.

The bodies were discovered during a search for a naked man who disappeared into the river while running away from an angry mob baying for his blood.

The man, Dickson Makeke, had been caught having sex with another man's wife in the village.

While police remain tight-lipped about the bodies, Sowetan sources are adamant that the bodies are still lying in a mortuary at Burgersfort.

The bodies were found in the overflowing river by police divers almost four weeks ago during a search for Makeke. .

Makeke is believed to have drowned after jumping into the river, with the woman's husband and locals in hot pursuit.

Sources said yesterday that the five bodies, two white men and three blacks, had been kept at an unidentified mortuary in the Burgersfort area, and that police were still waiting for their next of kin to identify them.

They claim police are "ashamed" to release details of the retrieved bodies.

A police source who spoke on condition of anonymity also confirmed knowledge of the unidentified bodies, but could not divulge more details about the matter.

"I find it strange that our members could be reluctant to speak about the matter because the discovery itself means success on our part.

"Releasing the information about the bodies will also go a long way in assisting us to find their relatives, while at the same time making people aware of the dangers posed by overflowing rivers," the police source said.

Police spokesman Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba was until yesterday still non-committal about the issue of the five bodies.

Meanwhile, police said yesterday that the search for Makeke's body was still on.