DRAGGED OUT TO SEA

All she could do was watch in horror as her father and fiancé drowned while trying to save her from a rip current

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA

IT’S not your fault. It’s not your fault. Her mom has been repeating these words like a mantra but Jenney Griessel can’t shake her feelings of guilt.

She’s haunted by the faces of her dad, Johann Griessel, and her fiancé, Colin Schreuder, as they fought in vain for their lives in their final act of love for her.

The men had tried to rescue Jenney when she was caught in a rip current at Umzumbe Beach on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal on 3 October.

Now the family is shell-shocked, their lives hollowed out by their devastating loss.

Jenney (26) and Colin (34) were enjoying an early summer holiday with her parents, Johann and Charissa, their son, Ajay (4), and Colin’s kids, Grant (9) and Lannika (8).

It was the first time in years the whole family, who are from Sasolburg in the Free State, had been away together and the weather was perfect that day.

"My dad went swimming first. I gave my stuff to Colin and told him, I'm going to swim with my dad," she tells YOU.

Dad and daughter swam and played around in the water, Johann laughing as Jenney spluttered on mouthfuls of seawater.

Suddenly they realised they were being pulled by the current.

"My dad said to me, 'Come Jenney'. We were trying to get out of the rip current, we were trying so hard. I told my dad 'I'm coming' and said he needed to go to the shore. I was getting a bit tired, but he refused to leave me - he wouldn't leave me.

Johann tried to swim to Jenney but the current pulled him further out to sea.

"When I turned and looked at them, they both looked back at me with fear on their faces. Those faces will be in my head forever.