Since 1 December, the City of Cape Town has recorded 19 near-drownings and four drownings at Cape Town’s beaches.
An NSRI rescue craft in action. The City of Cape Town has deployed more than 680 lifeguards to 29 beaches and swimming pools during the festive season. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach) Tori-beach-safety
An NSRI rescue craft in action. The City of Cape Town has deployed more than 680 lifeguards to 29 beaches and swimming pools during the festive season.
Saadiq Parker (25), a senior lifeguard with the Strandfontein Surf Lifesaving Club, was off-duty on Saturday, 27 December, after working Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but this didn’t stop him from rescuing four people at Miller’s Point Beach, near Simon’s Town.
Parker was visiting Miller’s Point with his girlfriend and her family when he was alerted to a commotion at about 12:30pm. Two young children (aged eight and five years) had fallen from an inflatable raft and were struggling in the water.
Read more: Is your favourite beach ready for the summer rush?
“I was lying with my back facing the water and I remember telling my girlfriend, ‘I don’t like lying like this because it’s uncomfortable for me in the sense that, in my nine years working as a lifeguard I’ve always been told [to] never let your back face the water, because in those few seconds when your back is facing the water, anything can happen. Eyes should always be on the water.’
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“And I literally finished saying that sentence when I heard a commotion [of] people shouting,” Parker told Daily Maverick.
He immediately ran to retrieve a pink T-buoy and entered the water. Parker said in the meantime, two adults had swum towards the children, but were now struggling to keep their heads above the water.
“It became a situation of not one person, not two persons, but four.”
Once he reached the four, Parker handed the pink T-buoy to the two adults, grabbed the two children and began swimming back to the shore. “Luckily, two members of the public came to assist me,” said Parker, adding that he handed the children over to the two swimmers who had entered the water.
“As I handed over the eight-year-old, she started foaming at the mouth. I immediately started shouting to the public that they need to phone an ambulance because that means this child has swallowed a large amount of water – we’re going to need to start CPR,” he said.
After safely retrieving the two adults, Parker guided members of the public through conducting CPR on the eight-year-old girl.
“After about six cycles [of CPR], we were able to revive her,” he said.
All four people were later handed over to Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services when they arrived, for further medical care. Parker told Daily Maverick he was deeply thankful to those who helped with the rescue.
‘You basically live on the beach’
Parker works at Strandfontein Beach on the False Bay coastline. Speaking to Daily Maverick, he said it had so far been a busy festive season on the beach.
“Last year, most of our rescues and first-aids that we’ve done on the beach happened during our duty times, which are from 2pm-6pm on a Saturday, 10am-6pm on a Sunday, and 10am-6pm on a public holiday.
“This year, we’ve noticed that the majority of our rescues are happening before we start duty – before 10am or after 6pm. There was one incident where we had to do a rescue at 7.15pm,” said Parker.
He said his lifesaving club had reinforced the saying that, “During the festive season, you basically live on the beach… We’re there early, before people come, and we sleep over just to ensure nothing happens on our beach.”
Tori-beach-safety
Senior lifeguard Saadiq Parker, from the Strandfontein Surf Lifesaving Club, rescued four people at Miller’s Point in Simon’s Town on Saturday, 27 December 2025. (Photo: Supplied / Saadiq Parker)
A National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) statement said there had been another rescue incident in Simon’s Town on Saturday, 27 December.
At 9:4oam, the NSRI said its Simon’s Town duty crew was activated after reports from its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) indicated a surf-skier was in distress in the area between Roman Rock Lighthouse and Fish Hoek.
“NSRI EOC had attempted to call the lady surf-skier on her phone [who had activated an alert]… but because of strong winds, cellphone communications were not successful.
After a search, the crew on an NSRI rescue craft located and rescued a man floating in the water.
“It was confirmed that he had fallen out of his surf-ski and he was trying to swim to shore after his leash had snapped and his surf-ski had drifted away from him when a fellow surf-skier, a female, had happened upon him, finding him floating in the water, and she had activated her NSRI SafeTRX emergency to raise the alarm,” said the NSRI.