In the aftermath of devastating floodwaters that swept through northeastern South Africa last week, a daring, high-stakes recovery operation led by elite South African police has yielded human remains from the belly of a massive 4.5-meter, 500-kilogram crocodile, in the search for a missing local businessman.
The ordeal began when the unidentified man attempted to cross a submerged low-water bridge over the Komati River, located in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. His vehicle quickly became trapped in the rushing floodwaters, and by the time first responders arrived at the scene, the car was empty. Authorities concluded the man had been swept away by the powerful current, according to Mpumalanga provincial police spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo, who shared details with South African national broadcaster SABC.
Launching a large-scale search operation that deployed both drones and helicopters to cover the wide, fast-moving river, search teams spotted a cluster of crocodiles basking on a small exposed sandbar. As commander of the police diving unit, Captain Johan “Pottie” Potgieter told local news outlet News24 that years of field experience allowed his team to immediately identify one reptile as suspicious: unlike the other crocodiles that scattered at the noise of approaching aircraft, this giant animal stayed motionless on the bank, its abdomen visibly distended from a recent large meal.
Teams humanely euthanized the suspected reptile before planning the dangerous recovery. In an operation police have labeled “highly dangerous and complex”, Potgieter was lowered via rope from a hovering helicopter directly to the sandbar, where he secured the massive crocodile before both he and the animal were hoisted back into the aircraft and flown to nearby Kruger National Park for examination. Potgieter acknowledged to News24 that the mission was an inherently tense experience: “The sharp-end of a crocodile is not the best place to approach it,” he said.
Upon dissection, search teams recovered partial human remains from the crocodile’s digestive tract, along with six separate shoes. Potgieter noted that while the presence of multiple footwear suggests the crocodile may have claimed other victims in the past, crocodiles are opportunistic feeders that often swallow non-food debris that washes into their habitat, so the find does not confirm additional deaths.
DNA testing is now underway to formally confirm whether the recovered remains belong to the missing businessman. Following the successful completion of the risky operation, South Africa’s acting police chief Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane publicly recognized Potgieter for his extraordinary bravery in carrying out the high-risk task.