Teach our children to swim, save lives
THE VERY water that gave them life, took their life. And in our parched land, these things happen to those at the totem pole of life – where resources are stretched across pinched lives and just getting by another day matters. I am referring to the four young children that were denied the full flight of life by drowning in a pan of water in Kwambonambi, KwaZulu-Natal.
Daily, children living in rural villages risk their lives crossing make-shift bridges and wading across murky waters to get to school.
How many mothers and daughters went to the water’s edge of crocodile-infested waters to wash clothes and never return? I have always been a fierce advocate of introducing swimming and road safety at school level. Every pupil should be given the opportunity to graduate from high school with a learner’s licence and basic swimming skills. Recently a trainee pilot drowned off Durban when she slipped while climbing a vessel ladder, despite wearing a life jacket. You cannot dispel people’s natural fear of water but the nurturing to enjoy water as recreation and not underestimate its power can begin at school where young impressionable lives can be taught.
Every now and then we have a couple of worshippers drowning while being baptised in the sea because they panic. It was discovered in the US that black Americans did not excel at swimming competitively because of the vicissitudes of the system of apartheid whereby the government did not build community swimming pools in their residential areas and so depravity led to no interest in the sport. Black South Africans faced a similar social dilemma but in the 20 odd years since democracy, they now embrace water sports like lifesaving, surfing and canoeing, previously the exclusive domain of whites.
In SA, a private swimming pool on your property is still a status of wealth. Even though government must be applauded by embarking on a herculean project to provide disadvantaged communities with transport to school, they still fall short of curbing deaths through road accidents and drownings annually. Such projects should be initiated at school level. To curb the problem at regional level, maybe our local government should take a cue from the City of Cape Town who have collaborated with several water safety partnerships including NSRI to stop the almost 200 water deaths annually that plague their shores.
It is far better than paying millions for the king’s reed dance, hosting the Essence Festival or having high falutin breakfast send-offs for local stars who eventually do not leave Durban. Kevin Govender
It is far better than paying millions for the king’s reed dance