Loss Of A Gentle Soul

Reshall was so badly burnt when his Ford Kuga burst into flames that his family had to provide DNA to identify him.

- Khatija Nxedlana

A CHARRED notebook filled with his beloved nephew’s drawings – that’s all Kaveen Jimmy needed to see to confirm the torched Ford 1.6 Kuga in the yard of the police station belonged to his younger brother.

“There was no semblance of a dashboard or steering wheel,” Kaveen (40) says. “All you could see was steel.”

Reshall Jimmy (33 at the time) travelled to Wilderness in the Western Cape in his 1.6 l EcoBoost Ford Kuga in early December 2015 with plans to tick paragliding off his bucket list. But barely 24 hours after arriving in the seaside village an alleged electrical fault behind the dashboard caused the car to burst into flames. Reshall, unable to open the doors or windows, was trapped in the inferno. The heat was so intense his elbows exploded and only the skin on his soles of his feet was left intact.

Kaveen had to provide a DNA sample so authorities could identify the body.

It took four days for family members to be tracked down. “I was asked to contact the police in George as a matter of urgency,” Kaveen tells YOU from his home in Rivonia, Johannesburg.

“I thought my brother was in some sort of trouble while partying in George on his holiday. I wish that was true now.”

Reshall’s death and his family’s determination to get answers from Ford has made ongoing headlines as one Kuga after another has erupted in flames across South Africa. Two more have caught alight in Swaziland and Botswana.