THE City of Cape Town has announced the number of people who drowned around its beaches during the 2023 festive season.
MMC for Community Services and Health Patricia van der Ross revealed that 12 people drowned at the beaches and of the 12, 10 were men and two were women.
She said though they didn’t want any fatality, they were happy to reduce the number of drownings from last year's number which was 17.
The first drowning incident happened at Clifton 4th Beach on 5 December where a man (58) died.
The latest incident happened on Monday, 22 January 2024, where a 23-year-old man died at Monwabisi Beach close to Khayelitsha.
Van der Ross said they tried to do everything to ensure that no single life is lost.
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“We set out each season to do the best that we can. In an ideal world, we’d want the summer to end without a single life lost. Sadly, the reality is often a different story.
“Statistically speaking, we have had a 29% drop in fatal drownings, but that’s cold comfort to the loved ones who are grappling with the loss of their relatives,” said Van der Ross.
She said their analysis of the fatal drowning incidents since the start of the festive shows that 67% of incidents happened on weekends or during the school holidays.
Van der Ross said 83% of the victims were men and none of the victims were children younger than 15 and some of the drownings happened outside the designated swimming areas.
"I want to renew our appeal to the public to please only swim in designated areas, and when our lifeguards are on duty. They will be manning the beaches until the conclusion of the Easter weekend, so make sure that you swim only under their watch,” said Van der Ross.
