Family demands answers after teen drowns in mining pit
It is unclear who owns the land where the accident occurred. Police have called for assistance.
Relatives and community members watch as police drivers retrieve the body of 17-year-old Mpho Mutshinyani who drowned while swimming in this abandoned soil mining pit near Elim, Limpopo. Photo: Thembi Siaga
The family of a teenager who drowned in an abandoned soil mining pit on Monday is demanding answers from the state.
Seventeen-year-old Mpho Mutshinyani from Ha-Mulima village is believed to have gone swimming in the pit after school on Monday. The large pit is not fenced. It is about two kilometres from his school in Elim, Mpheni Section. Following the recent rains, the once empty pit, filled up with water.
Residents told us that the land was owned by a farmer who died years ago (we cannot confirm this), and it has been used by companies to collect and mine soil unlawfully.
While police divers retrieved Mpho’s body, his mother was inconsolable, while relatives and community members gathered around the waterlogged pit.
A family representative Albert Muliwa told GroundUp that Mpho’s mother and family members are devastated by his death. “We are still in shock. He just moved to the village last year. It was the first time he went swimming there, and we never imagined something like this could happen,” Muliwa said.
Muliwa said they have been asking around about the land ownership but were told the owners died a long time ago. He added that the family is considering what steps to take to ensure this tragedy does not happen to another family.
Vhembe SAPS spokesperson Vuledzani Dathi confirmed that Waterval police are investigating. “It is alleged that the deceased went swimming with other children and unfortunately drowned. The local police notified the Provincial Search and Rescue Team, who retrieved the body from the water. No foul play is suspected.”
Dathi urged the public to come forward with any information about the landowners where the incident occurred or anything else that could assist the investigation.
Community leader Walter Mabasa added that, “Whoever dug this hole should have closed it properly. The pit is hidden in the bush, so it was difficult for us to see it. Those responsible must face the consequences.”
Support independent journalism
Donate using Payfast
Don't miss out on the latest news
We respect your privacy, and promise we won't spam you.
Next: Keep your teacher, we don’t want her, parents tell education department
Previous: Philippi remembers massacre victims
© 2026 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.