Thousands of residents and visitors flocked to the City of Cape Town’s beaches and pools this past weekend, not only to escape the heat, but also to enjoy a festive season ‘encore’.

‘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 was one of the busiest beach days in the last few years and our staff have certainly stepped up.

‘We lost three lives to fatal drownings on Saturday, while 134 lives were saved because of their efforts. Their hard work and dedication to serving the public under challenging circumstances should be commended,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Patricia van der Ross.

The fatal drownings took place outside of designated bathing areas at unguarded beaches or beyond the hours when lifeguards were on duty, at Clovelly, Monwabisi East and Strand.

In addition, a total of 127 help-outs were recorded by City lifeguards on duty. 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.

Further to these help-outs, a total of six non-fatal drownings that resulted in successful rescues by City lifeguards were recorded.

Additional first aid cases, including dislocations, seizures, facial injuries and minor cuts and bruises, were also attended to by lifeguards.

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.

‘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 Councillor Van der Ross.

Identikidz will continue to run on the following days:

• 15 and 16 January 2022

Beaches where parents and caregivers can find Identikidz staff are:

Muizenberg, Fish Hoek and Strandfontein in the south; Gordon’s Bay, Strand, Monwabisi, Harmony Park, and Mnandi in the east; Big Bay, Sea Point and surrounding area, Silverstroom, Camps Bay, Lagoon Beach, Melkbos Strand, and Millerton Beach.

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

Swim only between the red and yellow flags, where lifeguards are present

Source: City Of Cape Town