On Saturday, four students from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) were swept out to sea at Strand beach.
The Students’ Christian Organisation (SCO) planned the beach outing. Yesterday SCO released a statement explaining that once they noticed SCO members were in trouble, they notified the lifeguards on duty. The two female students were rescued and the two male students are yet to be found.
The search for the remaining students was postponed due to rough sea conditions, strong winds and poor water visibility but continued yesterday morning . As of this morning there has been no news that the students were found.
According to news reports the students were swimming in a no-swimming zone which is known to have big waves and strong rip currents. However, in SCO’s statement it was also noted that “the area was not demarcated to be a non-swimming area as some reports claim. The swimming area was not restricted nor was a warning given to safeguard that people did not swim in that specific area.”
Yesterday Craig Lambinon from the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) told EWN that ” NSRI Gordon’s Bay emergency services and lifeguards from Strand Life Saving Club searched extensively yesterday [Saturday] for two males that are missing aged 19 and 20 from the University of the Western Cape.”
The families of the students have been informed and a missing person’s report was opened at the Strand Police Station. One of the students is a second year law student at UWC and the other a first year student from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
UPDATE:
Unfortunately the bodies of both young men (from Venda), second-year UWC Law student Aluwani Hadzhi and first-year CPUT Mechanical Engineering student Mulweli Nevhutalo, were recovered on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week at Macassar Beach.
Written by Jody Davison
