Cape Town - The body of a man thought to have drowned at Rocklands Beach, along the Sea Point promenade, has brought to three the number of people who died this week along Cape Town’s most well-known walk.
On Monday, former Scotland international Greig Oliver, 58, who until his tragic death was the Elite Player Development Officer with Munster Rugby Academy in Ireland, died after the tandem paraglider in which he was a passenger crash-landed into the rocks in the sea after a mid-air collision with another paraglider.
On Tuesday, a Sea Point mother, who has since been identified as Laureen Leps, a property agent, was swept into the sea after walking on the rocks. She was rescued from the frigid waters but died overnight in hospital.
Further south, along Sandy Bay, the search continues for 9-year-old Moegamat Kamaar from Belhar, who slipped and fell on the rocks before he was washed into the sea on Sunday.
A witness, Christiaan Mouton, said: “Both Moegamat and another boy around age 15 were playing on the rocks. Moegamat barely went into the water. Strong beach waves came, and one moment he was there and the next he was not.”
The boy’s foster father, Rubin du Preez, 62, said the family came to the beach for a walk and heard screams for help.
According to the local ward councillor, Nicola Jowell, not much was known about the man whose body washed ashore on Thursday afternoon at about 2pm.
“He is believed to be a Somalian national in his early fifties. The body was not in the water for too long,” said Jowell.
Cape Argus photographer Armand Hough, who was at the scene, said the man’s body had been floating in the shallow water for quite sometime before the alarm was raised by beachgoers and those on the promenade.
“Sirens started going off in Sea Point as emergency services descended on Rocklands Beach. The body was still in the shallow water, his shoes were off, and he was fully clothed and wearing a glove,” said Hough.
The man was eventually brought out by law enforcement officials who covered him with a “space blanket”, with one of his arms still raised.
“Later on, a woman came to identify the body. Just over an hour later he was taken away by pathologists. Everyone was shocked, asking how could it be that there were three deaths within a few hundred metres at the promenade,” said Hough.
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said an inquest docket had been opened for further investigation.
Earlier this week the National Sea Rescue Institute issued a warning to beachgoers to be wary of the current spring tide, which causes higher-than-normal high tides and lower-than-normal low tides.
“During winter months storm sea conditions can increase shoreline risks during the full moon and new moon spring tides. This full moon spring tide will last into the next few days,” said NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon.