- The bodies of three men were found at Small Bay Beach in Bloubergstrand and Lagoon Beach in Milnerton over the weekend.
- The first body, believed to be that of a missing fisherman, was recovered on Sunday morning.
- The other two bodies were found on Monday.
The body of a man was found at Small Bay Beach in Bloubergstrand on Sunday morning (21 July) while rescue teams recovered the bodies of two young men who went missing at Lagoon Beach in Milnerton on Sunday.
At the time of print, the names of the deceased men were unknown as their families were still in the process of identifying their bodies.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said they believe the body found at Small Bay may be that of a fisherman, an adult male, who went missing at Small Bay on Saturday (20 July) after being swept off rocks while fishing.
“However, formal identification will need to be made in cooperation with police and forensic pathology services,” said NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon.
READ | Bodies of two men found at Lagoon Beach in Cape Town
Terence Lawson, NSRI Melkbosstrand duty coxswain, said at 15:02 on Saturday, NSRI Melkbosstrand duty crew and the City of Cape Town’s water-rescue network were activated following eyewitness reports of an angler swept off rocks at Small Bay, Bloubergstrand.
he said.
The body was recovered by police divers, from rocks on the shoreline at low tide on Sunday morning.
“It has been taken into the care of police and government health forensic pathology services,” Lambinon said. “Condolences are conveyed to the family of the deceased man.”
Missing men
In a separate incident on Sunday, an extensive search was conducted for a 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old man who went missing at Lagoon Beach, Milnerton.
The NSRI said it appears they had reportedly chased after a soccer ball that landed in the surf while the local soccer team that they are a part of were playing soccer on the beach.
Entering the water at Milnerton’s Lagoon Beach to retrieve the ball, it appears that they were both caught in strong rip currents.
On Monday morning 22 July, the Table View police and the police’s diving services responded to north of Milnerton Beach where the public had reported the bodies of two men on the beach found during the Spring low tide.
READ | One dead, two missing at sea
“On arrival on the scene the two bodies, that may be those of the two young men from yesterdays incident at Lagoon Beach, were recovered by police officers and police divers and taken into the care of government health forensic pathology services,” Lambinon told the newspaper on Monday morning.
Lambinon said formal identification by families is protocol that has not yet been observed on Monday, “and we cannot emphasise enough the respect of all care being provided by police and forensic pathology to the families and friends in this sad tragedy that they are facing”, said Lambinon.
It has been learned that surfers, and a Good Samaritan, using an NSRI pink rescue buoy, had tried to save the two young men. “We have not been able to identify them. We commend them for their efforts despite the sad outcome,” Lambinon said on Monday.
Missing pink rescue buoys
TygerBurger reported last week of the missing pink rescue buoys that were installed at Bloubergstrand’s Kids Rock and Kite Beach (“Help find pink rescue buoys”, 17 July).
The pink rescue buoys of Kids Rock were installed just last month.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) installed two pink rescue buoys off Kleinbaai in response to a drowning incident that had occurred there on Tuesday 14 May. The incident claimed the lives of two men, Pierre Lotter (23) and Willem Pretorius (47) as well as three Dachshund dogs. The two men, from Kathu in the Northern Cape, and their three dogs had gone fishing at Kids Rock, off-shore of Bloubergstrand, in the vicinity of the Blue Peter Hotel on Tuesday the 14th. Pretorius was found dead in Bloubergstrand, near the Blue Peter, while Lotter and the three dogs were reported missing on the day. Their bodies washed ashore a few days later in Melkbosstrand.
If you spot a pink buoy, return it to the NSRI Station at Melkbosstrand, or call 082 994 7555.
