WESTERN CAPE. – An extensive search is underway for the 85-year-old well-known Oudtshoorn ostrich farmer and former rugby player Saag Jonker, after he was swept away by floodwaters from the Olifants River on Sunday afternoon. Jonker attempted to cross a low-water bridge approximately three kilometres outside Oudtshoorn in the Rooiheuwel area at around 12:50 when the river swept away his brown Toyota Land Cruiser. He has been missing since then.
Jonker is a well-known figure in the South African ostrich industry. The Saag Jonker group, based in Oudtshoorn, has developed since 1976 into a large private integrated ostrich farming, processing and marketing group. Jonker was appointed South Africa's Farmer of the Year in 2000. He was also a well-known rugby player in Oudtshoorn and played for the Oudtshoorn rugby club. According to Oudtshoorn Courant he participated in the final Springbok trials in 1967.
The Jonker family stated in a statement that Jonker had done his usual rounds and inspections on farms that morning and was on his way back to his home in Oudtshoorn when he was swept away in his vehicle. Divers, drones and an AMS helicopter are involved in the search. The family has asked the public and media to refrain from speculating about Jonker or spreading unverified information. They expressed their thanks to the emergency services, divers, helicopter crew, drone operators, farmers, volunteers and community members involved in the search.
According to Oudtshoorn Courant police divers at the scene confirmed that the river was flowing too strongly at that stage to dive in the water and that they waited for the flow to decrease. There was still no sign of Jonker or his vehicle by Sunday evening.
Hannes Visser said on social media: Today I spent more than four hours at a scene where a farmer and his bakkie were swept off a low-water bridge and carried away by the river. As I receive information, I post it on the newspaper's Facebookpage. No sign of the bakkie. The farmer's identity is known, but I am withholding it until the family gives permission. In the meantime the sun is burning me to a crisp, I trudge behind rescue vehicles and scramble up wherever I can get a ride and hope my car, which I left in the road, is okay. Drones, helicopter, police, farmers, family, divers, a full fast-flowing river, questions, hope, onlookers. It was a long afternoon, but I was able to get home. The emergency services and police are still at the river, and the family is together and can do nothing but wait. To the Jonker family waiting for answers and everyone who knows Saag Jonker – we are thinking of you and what you are going through. Thanks also to the people who left comments of encouragement on social media rather than dishing out thoughtless blows.
The family statement was shared on the TrotsOudtshoorn Facebookpage.
Sources: Jonker family; Oudtshoorn Courant; Ostrich Products South Africa (OPSA)
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
