Rescue teams search for the body of Enoch Mpianzi who drowned at Nyati Bush and River Break last week while attending an orientation camp. Image via Twitter: Panyaza Lesufi
@Lesufi
Parktown Boys Grade 8 camp: Search for missing pupil continues
The disappearance of 13-year-old Enock Mpianzi has shocked Parktown Boys High School.
Rescue teams search for the body of Enoch Mpianzi who drowned at Nyati Bush and River Break last week while attending an orientation camp. Image via Twitter: Panyaza Lesufi
@Lesufi
The frantic search for a Grade 8 Parktown Boys High School pupil, who went missing during an orientation camp in the North West Province on 15 January 2020, is set to continue on Friday.
UPDATE, 11:00 Friday 17 January: Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi confirms that 13-year-old Enock Mpianzi’s body has been recovered.
The beginning of the school year has gotten off to a tragic start for Parktown Boys, as initial searches for 13-year-old Enock Mpianzi, who was last seen on the Crocodile River at a game lodge near Brits, have failed to provide any clarity on the disappearance. Fears that Mpianzi could have drowned in the river have intensified the search and rescue operation, with South African Police Service (SAPS) divers leading the charge.
The disappearance of Enock Mpianzi
Kim van Es, the media liaison for Parktown Boys’ High School, released a statement on Friday morning, noting that emergency operations had been immediately instituted when Mpianzi’s disappearance first came to light. The school said:
“Police Search and Rescue are on site and are already at work in the area of the river where a water activity was held after the boy’s arrival.
The parents of the missing boy are at the venue.
The search continues and our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this traumatic time.”
Lesufi joins search for missing Parktown Boys pupil
The MEC for Education and Youth Development in the Gauteng Province, Panyaza Lesufi, elaborated on the anxious search, which had been temporarily suspended on Thursday night. Lesufi explained that he would join the search for the missing schoolboy and ‘remained hopeful’ that Mpianzi would be found, saying:
“Rescue teams suspended the search last night. They will resume with the search this morning. Jointly with the school we’ve agreed to cancel the camp. The boys will have their breakfast this morning and thereafter be taken back home. We remain hopeful.”
‘Raft overturned’ reports SAPS
SAPS released a statement on Friday morning, elaborating on the circumstances leading up to Mpianzi’s disappearance, saying:
“Police are continuing the search for a boy who went missing on Wednesday during a Grade 8 orientation camp. As part of the activities, the children had to build their own water raft and were on the Crocodile River when the raft overturned and the boy disappeared.”
Parktown Boys High School has requested that anybody with information relating to the disappearance of Enock Mpianzi contact Detective Constable Netshiunda Assen SAPS Brits: 079 607 6844 / 012 252 8520.
This is a developing story – updates to follow
