Buffalo City holidaymakers urged not to swim at eastern beach

The Buffalo City Metro in the Eastern Cape has urged holidaymakers to refrain from swimming at the popular Eastern Beach as it is unsafe to do so. Parts of the beach have been washed away, exposing rocks.

Holidaymakers flock to the beach at this time of the year.

BCM Spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya says beachgoers can utilise other beaches around the Metro.

“We want to remind the public that the eastern beach is still closed as the beach is washed away and is very dangerous. We do not see this changing in the foreseeable future. We do take note that this is a popular beach; hence, we find people swimming at the beach. We have stationed lifeguards in all our beaches; we have added 48 lifeguards so that we make sure that there are no major issues at our beaches; they are being assisted by marshals as well.”

Drowning incidents

Meanwhile, Eastern Cape Police have opened two inquest dockets following two separate drowning incidents in Gqeberha.

National Sea Rescue Institute Spokesperson Craig Lambinon says in the first incident on Christmas Day, three boys were swimming at Swartkops River Bridge when they got into difficulty in the water.

The two boys managed to get out of the water while another one was found dead following a search.

Lambinon says in another incident today, the body of a 53-year-old man was found on rocks on the shoreline at Seaview.

“It appears that the man had been angling along the shoreline during the night and reportedly after failing to return home. His wife had gone to look for him finding him deceased on the shoreline, she had flagged down a security vehicle and the alarm was raised. On arrival on the scene, the body of the man was located and recovered from the shoreline. The body of the man has been taken into the care of Government Health Forensic Pathology Services.”