Tragedy in the Swakop River

Adam Hartman

26 April 2011

The life of a loved public and environmental servant in Swakopmund was tragically cut short when an innocent adventure on the Swakop River over the weekend went horribly wrong.

Health and Environmental Officer of the Swakopmund Municipality, Berdine Potgieter; her brother, Gerhard de Bruin; a friend of hers; and her eldest son and his friend went on a fun outing on Saturday where they would ride a strong flowing Swakop River on inner-tubes and boogie-boards.

The river’s flow picked up dramatically since Thursday, with many calling it a “record flow” in decades. The river was over 100 metres wide at some places, and while there were shallow patches, there were deep, fast flowing gauges with large rapids too. Large boulders and tree stumps could be seen drawn down with the flow.

The small company entered the river on their tubes and boards, east of the old reservoir, about three kilometres from the river’s mouth. A weir (a low lying wall across the river’s breadth) was just downstream.

Potgieter’s son and his friend were down first on their boogie-boards with she, her friend and brother following on their tubes. Friends and family, and dozens of onlookers who just came to marvel at the flow of the river watched as the group flowed down past them below the cliff banks.

Everything seemed to be going fine until the three tube-riders went over the weir. The boogie-boarders seemed to go over the weir and on down the river without much trouble, but a ‘death trap’ awaited Potgieter, De Bruin and her friend.

Because of the strong flow over the weir, a deep trough was washed out below on the downstream-side of the wall, creating what is called a ‘washing machine’; a type of whirlpool, pulling down whatever comes into its path, and then ‘spitting out’ again before pulling down to the bottom again.

In front of all the onlookers, the ‘washing machine’ started terrorising the three adventurers. They could not get out of its grip; clinging to the tubes for dear life to keep the whirlpool from killing them.

Potgieter’s friend miraculously was flushed out of the turmoil towards the river bank; but clearly just escaped with her life.

De Bruin was trying to hold on to his sister as the water force tirelessly continued tugging on them to drag them down over and over again.

People watched helpless at the horror played off in front of them.

Swakopmund businessman, Quinton Liebenberg, was watching rugby when he received an SOS. He has been involved in several rescues along the coast.

He and a colleague rushed to the scene with a canoe, climbing down the cliff and entering the flow downstream from where De Bruin was fighting to hang on. By that time, his sister was no where to be seen. De Bruin was also just about to give in to exhaustion.

Liebenberg’s challenge against the ‘washing machine’ was tough because he had to fight to stay out of it, while also trying to keep moving forward against the flowing river. They managed to get hold of De Bruin where they took him to the banks, from there he was taken to hospital.

While Liebenberg was helping De Bruin, paramedics were trying to do all they could to resuscitate Potgieter, whose body washed out on the beach between all the debris on the north side of the jetty – right in front of the national sea rescue workshop.

Potgieter was dead. She had drowned in the Swakop River – an environmental area she had been committed to for many years through the municipality and the Nacoma Project. The might of the flow ripped her from her brother’s grasp; took her body downstream to the mouth and then, about two kilometres north of the mouth, washed her ashore within an hour.

The news of her tragic end swept like wildfire through town, because everyone knew this woman, who now leaves her bereaved husband, son and two young daughters behind.

Her brother, who suffers from much shock and exhaustion, was allowed to leave the hospital on Sunday.

The Namibian learned that another woman had to be rescued from the same area the day before. She too apparently attempted to go with the flow of the Swakop River on a tube, and was sucked into the ‘washing machine’. The river was not as strong as on Saturday though, and so her rescue was made a little easier.

AllAfrica – All the Time