More lifeguards for local beach duty

LIFESAVING Western Province, a volunteer organisation whose members help safeguard beaches around Cape Town, will boost the visibility of demarcated safe swimming zones this holiday season.

The organisation has about 900 active duty volunteer members across 16 lifesaving clubs in the Mother City, in addition to their “nipper” section that trains the youth. Both the City of Cape Town and Lifesaving Western Province provide lifeguards at beaches and swim- ming pools. While the city has a core group of paid lifeguards and contracts more for the festive season, volunteers from Lifesaving Western Province work mainly on weekends and public holidays.

Chairman Brian Sturman said Lifesaving Western Province was set to invest in long poles with large flags bearing the slogan “bathe between the flags” to better show beachgoers where it’s safe to swim.

“In the next couple of weeks, we hope to roll some of the new flags out,” he said.

Sturman said he was impressed by how large and visible such flags were on Australian beaches, and wanted to replicate these on local shores. The volunteer group already uses a flag system to show swimmers where it’s safe to enter the water, but Sturman said the new improved set-up would be more prominent.

He added that the group had put out a tender for red and yellow flags, and was hoping to soon receive quotations. It would cost around R60 000 to provide the beaches the organisation patrols with the new flags and flagpoles.

Sturman also appealed for donations to help the group buy the flags and flagpoles, as well as the duty shirts and hats for the lifeguards.

Anda Ntsodo, Cape Town mayoral committee member for community services, said beach safety was key to the city’s beaches “achieving high accolades internationally”.

Ntsodo said that from December 1, lifeguards would be on beaches daily from 10am to 6pm.

For details on beach safety, visit www.capetown.gov.za

jan.cronje@inl.co.za