“I am proud of the massive effort put in by all our services over the weekend and I especially want to celebrate the commitment of our lifeguards. Saturday (8 January) was one of the busiest beach days in the last few years and our staff have certainly stepped up”.
This was the message of appreciation from Mayco member from Community Safety and Health, Patricia van der Ross after the City of Cape Town recorded the busiest beach day in three years.
The scorching sun on the day saw beach lovers going out to try and cool themselves down by playing in the water.
The sad part about the day is that three lives were lost due to drowning while 134 lives were saved because of the efforts of lifeguards.
According to the City, the drownings took place outside of designated bathing areas at unguarded beaches or beyond the hours when lifeguards were on duty, at Monwabisi East, Strand and Glencairn.
“Their hard work and dedication of serving the public under challenging circumstances should be commended,” said Ross.
In addition, a total of 127 help-outs were recorded by City lifeguards on duty on Saturday.
Van der Ross said these are rescues where a potential drowning was avoided and are in addition to the countless preventative actions taken by the lifeguards prior to a rescue being required, but also the additional rescues performed by voluntary lifeguards on duty at the 15 lifesaving clubs around the coast. She said further to these help-outs, a total of six non-fatal drownings that resulted in successful rescues by City lifeguards were also recorded.
Additional first aid cases, including dislocations, seizures, facial injuries and minor cuts and bruises, were also attended to by lifeguards, she said.
The National Sea Rescue Institute provided active duties to support services at Strand, Monwabisi, Strandfontein and Muizenberg, and their base stations conducted routine water patrols along the Melkbosstrand, Table View, Sea Point and Camps Bay coastlines.
The City’s Social Development and Early Childhood Development Department tagged 21 507 children over the weekend and reunited 155 with their parents or caregivers.
“Unfortunately, six children (four at Camps Bay on 8 January and two at Muizenberg on 9 January) had to be handed over to the Provincial Department of Social Development as they could not be reunited with their parents or caregivers by nightfall. The six children were not tagged and caregivers/parents are encouraged to make use of the Identikidz programme,” she urged.
“Identikidz staff have tagged 98 232 children in total so far and reunited 338 with their families. There are still some busy, hot days ahead and I want to encourage parents to ensure they have their children tagged at the participating beaches. “It’s a simple, quick process and will save everyone from the worry and trauma,” said Van der Ross.
Identikidz will continue to run on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 January.
When City Vision visited Monwabisi beach on Tuesday, a handful of beachgoers were enjoying a swim at the beach.
Ayanda Njoli (23) said the past few days have been very hot which is why he has been a regular at the beach recently.
“The heat is unbearable. The best way for me to calm my body down is to come here and swim. It really energises my body,” he said.
Visitors to the beaches are reminded to obey the four golden rules: Do not drink and swim, do not leave children unsupervised, be aware of rip currents, and swim only between the red and yellow flags, where lifeguards are present.