Life guards to be up-skilled

In a written response to a local life guard’s accusation that the KwaDukuza municipality is neglecting the required annual skills testing for their profession (‘Lifesavers in trouble’, Courier September 26, 2014), the municipality claimed the last retest for their lifeguards, was done in September 2012.

This is contrary to the claim by the local lifeguard, who asked to remain anonymous, who reported that only 10 of KwaDukuza’s lifeguards had been retested in the last three years (and that those lifeguards had taken it upon themselves to get retested).

KDM’s response went on to say that in 2013, a retest was not done as no service provider tendered on the three occasions that council advertised for the service required.

KDM spokesperson Sifiso Zulu did however confirm “a service provider has been appointed by Regulation 36 of the SCM Policy. The lifeguard retests were then booked in August 2014 with Lifeguard Academy, being the sole service provider, and are scheduled to take place in October 2014,” said Zulu.

Zulu confirmed that they would not be found on the database of SA Lifesaving.

“KwaDukuza municipality will not be found on the SA Lifesaving database as that is a database for Voluntary Lifesaving Clubs. KwaDukuza municipality cannot be classified as a club. It is an organ of state that renders a professional service,” said Zulu.

He said council places great value in the refresher courses.

“Council also enforces rigorous training and quarterly lifeguard evaluations to ensure that the team is in top form, proficient in their profession and go out of the way to serve in the line of duty. Council will, before this holiday season begins, train its lifeguards in advanced CPR – not a requirement but just another measure to secure the safety of the public. Your title: ‘Lifesavers in trouble’ is totally untrue; it is clear that there is one unhappy apple in the bunch, but on a whole KwaDukuza municipality’s [lifeguards] are dedicated, content and driven to perform their duties as lifeguards to the best of their abilities,” he said.