Excessive alcohol consumption is the cause of many drowning incidents on local beaches, the East London National Sea Rescue Institute said.
NSRI station commander Geoff McGregor said they were battling with large volumes of people who had flocked to beaches over the holidays, many of whom were drinking excessively.
“Rather drink and stay home with your family than go to the beach and lose a loved one.
“We have been fighting [excessive] alcohol consumption on our beaches for a while, because in most cases it’s the cause of people drowning,” he said.
McGregor said on Friday of the seven people who are believed to have drowned, four of the drownings occurred at Eastern Beach. Their bodies have yet to be recovered.
EL Life Saving Club commander David Mandell agreed alcohol was a problem because when people were inebriated, they were more likely to walk into the ocean without paying attention to flags or looking for signs of strong currents.
“Nahoon Beach is known for its strong currents at Nahoon Corner and at Nahoon Beach right in front of the lifesavers’ shack, where we’ve put signage, but you’ll find that people – some of whom have consumed alcohol – are ignorant or don’t see the signs and quarrel with lifeguards when advised to swim elsewhere.
“We are constantly urging beachgoers to always swim between the two flags because that is a safe area and where lifeguards are watching.”
Out along the East Coast resorts, Chintsa resident Glynis Bartlett said they were pleased to finally have lifeguards stationed at their beach during the festive season.
“We had a drowning in 2017 and we don’t want to see that happening this year again.
“All year we’re without lifeguards on our beaches, but this is a critical time when we need lifeguards,” she said.
Recently appointed lifeguard Lulama Komisa said the Great Kei Municipality had recently appointed eight lifeguards in the region.
“We’re new here and people don’t really know us and they don’t take us seriously because we don’t have a uniform, nor do we have flags to guide swimmers [on where the best spot is to swim].
“This doesn’t put us in a good position, but we are doing our best to save lives,” he said.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said BCM called on beachgoers to exercise caution this festive season.
“In anticipation of the influx of visitors to its beaches, the city has deployed an additional 33 lifeguards to beef up its usual contingent of 19. “These lifeguards have been operational since December 9 and will work up until January 31 2019,” he said.
Ngwenya said the city had also erected 72 additional ablution facilities around the beaches, as well as road and traffic control measures to manage the influx at the beaches...