Plane: SAPS needs report

2003-06-23 08:36

Annie Olivier

Johannesburg - The South African police are waiting for an Interpol report before they can get involved in the search for two Gauteng men who have been missing for more than a week after their aircraft left Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Jaco du Plessis, 31, of Benoni on the East Rand and Lourens Louw, 40, of Bon Accord in Pretoria, were on a business trip and left Dar es Salaam to fly back to South Africa via Mfue in Zambia nearly 10 days ago.

Director Phuto Setati, national police spokesperson, said the police were aware of the incident, but hadn't received any information. "As soon as a report is received, the relevent authority will take a decision."

Setati couldn't say if the report had to come from the South African or Tanzanian Interpol representatives.

Meanwhile, the only clue to the men's disappearance is an unclear message on a family member's answering machine. Gerrie du Plessis said the sentence "Lourens and Jaco were not cargo", formed part of the message left on his brother-in-law's answering machine last Sunday.

Du Plessis said in aircraft lingo it meant that the men were not in the aircraft or "not dead, because they hadn't arrived as luggage".

The names of Du Plessis's parents and his baby son, as well as the cellnumber of Louw's wife, Gina, were read in English with the request that they all be contacted.

He said copies of the cassette had been sent to several experts to see if they could interpret more clues.

"We have listened to the cassette time and again, but some words are difficult to hear."

Anyone who can help has been requested to contact Du Plessis at 082 929 6850.

- Beeld