The South African Police Service (SAPS) has confirmed the discovery of three missing police officers, whose bodies were recovered from the Hennops River in Centurion following a six-day search effort across multiple provinces.

Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday evening, National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola delivered the somber announcement, saying:

“It has been a difficult six days for members of the South African Police Service and affected families, as we searched everywhere for our three missing police officers, Constable Keamogetswe Buys, Constable Boipelo Senoge and Constable Cebekhulu Linda.”

READ: SAPS launches search for three missing police officers

The high-level investigative team had combed through areas in Gauteng, Free State, and Limpopo, following leads that eventually led them to an area near the Grasmere Toll Plaza, the Buccleugh interchange, and John Vorster Drive.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am unfortunately not the bearer of good news this evening. We had hoped to find our three police officers safe, unharmed and alive, but this is not the case,” General Masemola said.

The breakthrough came on Monday when investigators, with the support of multiple specialized SAPS units and drone surveillance, discovered debris believed to be from a VW Polo along the N1 highway. This led them to the banks of the Hennops River, where a Renault Kangoo panel van was found.

“Our SAPS and Tshwane divers immediately commenced with the search, where we discovered two bodies, one of the driver of the Renault panel van who it is just came to light that he is one of our employees attached to the Lyttleton Police Station and the second body was that of Constable Senoge. We had to abandon the search as it was already dark.”

The search resumed on Tuesday morning.

“This morning, the third body was discovered which is believed to be that of Constable Linda. We further found a fourth decomposed body, we are still trying to identify who this person is. Later this afternoon, we sadly found the fifth body of Constable Buys.”

The families of the deceased officers were taken to the mortuary, where they identified the bodies of their loved ones.

General Masemola added:

“We are still searching for the VW Polo and our investigation is continuing.”

“We don’t want to speculate at this stage what led to the discovery of these bodies in this river, whether it was an accident or not, our investigation will reveal those aspects once we find their vehicle.”

“We would like to thank the families and the task team involved in the search for working tirelessly to ensure a breakthrough in this case.”

“This is not how we expected this case to unfold, we were hoping for a positive outcome. Be that as it may, we are relieved that we could provide the painful closure to the families and the broader SAPS family.”

“Investigations are still continuing into this matter.”