Missing Gqeberha Student's Body Found in Lake, Family Faces Financial Struggles

• The body of a missing 18-year-old student was recovered from a Gqeberha Lake days after his mother reported him missing
• The mother faces financial challenges in repatriating her son's body after tragedy struck their family
• Eastern Cape authorities confirmed the cause of death as drowning following the disappearance report

Justin Williams, a journalist at Briefly News since 2024, covers South Africa’s current affairs. Before joining Briefly News, he served as a writer and chief editor at Right for Education Africa’s South African chapter.

EASTERN CAPE, GQEBERHA - The body of an 18-year-old student from Nelson Mandela University (NMU) was recovered from a lake in Gqeberha, days after his mother reported him missing when he failed to answer her calls.

Body floating in the water

Police in the Eastern Cape reported that the body, identified as Lathitha, was discovered at North End Lake in Sydenham on Tuesday morning, 31 March 2026. Authorities indicated that they received information at about 11:45 am about a body floating in the water along Milner Avenue. A witness reportedly alerted police after noticing the body while fishing, and the SAPS Divers Unit retrieved it from the lake. The cause of death was confirmed as drowning.

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The student, a first-year economics student at the university, had been staying in a campus hostel at the time of his disappearance. According to IOL, his mother, Portia Mhlathi, who lives in Mthatha, about 520km away, had begun searching for him on Saturday, 28 March 2026, after he failed to respond to her calls. Mhlathi travelled to Gqeberha after being informed that a body resembling her son had been found. She reportedly raised money for the trip by going door to door, as she is unemployed. Upon arrival, a relative who accompanied her identified the body.

The family now faces financial challenges in repatriating the body to Mthatha. Mhlathi indicated that her insurance policy was less than three months old and that the death had been classified as unnatural, leaving her without cover for funeral costs. She reported that she planned to seek assistance from a funeral parlour to transport her son's body home. She described the situation as deeply painful and indicated that her primary concern is returning her son's body to Mthatha.

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Other drowning stories

A 10-year-old boy drowned at a public swimming pool in Dobsonville, Soweto, allegedly while lifeguards were on duty. This prompted the City of Johannesburg to close the facility. Reports indicate the drowning happened in front of lifeguards stationed at the pool. City council speaker Margaret Arnolds visited the family and said the municipality would conduct an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the child’s death.

A search is underway for a 23-year-old man who went missing while swimming at Bluewater Bay in Gqeberha. Teams were activated shortly before 7 pm after reports of a drowning in progress. NSRI rescue swimmers were dispatched to the scene, and the rescue craft Eddie Beaumont II was launched.

Human remains believed to be linked to a missing South African National Defence Force (SANDF) member have been discovered in the Nkomazi River along the South Africa–Mozambique border. Mpumalanga police said a fisherman found a human head floating in a remote part of the river.

Source: Briefly News