Cape Town — Twitter users have taken to the social media website with the hashtag #RIPOdwa to honour Odwa Shweni, the actor who died while filming a fight scene at the Sterkspruit Waterfall, Monks Cowl in the Drakensberg, IOL reports.

The 39-year-old from Centurion in Johannesburg is believed to have lost his footing and fell 40m off a cliff before his body was later recovered. In an interview with the Sunday Tribune, a tour guide who wished to remain anonymous said the following:

"They didn't have a guide because they never requested one and no one knew they would walk as far as to that part of the cliff. They rehearsed at a very dangerous section of the reserve. There was no way that guy could have survived, the cliff he stood on is slippery and there's a huge waterfall. We were called when there was this incident and we searched till very late."

"He was like a brother to me. I have known him since he was a teenager," said family friend Ali Rodolo who, in the Centurion Rekord, added that Shweni's death came as a shock to the whole family. "He was full of life and a walking encyclopaedia. He was well-read on any topic."

According to EWN, police have launched an investigation and will probe the lack of safety procedures that contributed to Shweni's death.

Shweni is survived by his wife and two children.