3 children among weekend spate of EC water deaths
FOUR people, including three children, drowned in the province over the weekend and one person is still missing.
An eight-year-old girl has become the first victim of drowning at the popular Second Beach in Port St Johns this festive season, while her 12-year-old friend miraculously survived and had to be rushed to hospital.
Eastern Cape health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said yesterday the young victim and her friend were among scores of bathers at the beach on Friday between 5pm and 6pm.
“The lifeguards had reportedly knocked off at the time,” Kupelo said. She was taken to a local healthcare facility where she was declared dead.
“The 12-year-old was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. She was battling to breathe,” he added.
The two incidents come at a time when municipal bosses in Port St Johns have decided to institute a ban on alcohol on its beaches, as the Dispatch reported at the weekend.
Meanwhile, another bather, believed to a middle-aged man is missing, feared drowned at South Beach.
Kupelo said the bather, believed to be from Lusikisiki, had been with friends when he headed for the beach leaving them behind.
He said the provincial department was planning to send a helicopter to help look for him.
In an unrelated incident, two sevenyearboys drowned in East London and Butterworth.
East London police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala said Iviwe Sota of Nompumelelo Township in Beacon Bay was swimming with friends under the supervision of his parents on Saturday when he drowned shortly after 6pm.
Mqala said an inquest docket been opened for investigation.
The other little boy drowned in a dam in Teko Springs village outside Centane. had
Butterworth police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said: “The deceased was swimming with other boys as it was very hot on Saturday. An inquest docket has been opened for further investigation by Centane police.”
The body of an East London angler who went missing on Friday, was found only yesterday.
Police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi said search and rescue unit officials retrieved the body of Lynton Holder, 51, in the Kei River yesterday morning.
Fellow anglers raised the alarm on Saturday when they saw that Holder’s fishing boat was empty. He had previously been seen in the boat fishing on Friday evening.
The boat was found at an embankment 4km from Kei Mouth and the search party initially searched near the boat on Saturday until the search was called off due to darkness.
The search resumed yesterday morning until Holder’s body was found floating in the river. An inquest docket has been opened at the Kei Mouth police station. No foul play is suspected.