Tourist drowning sparks concerns over lifeguard hours

About 15 minutes after the lifeguards packed up at Willard Beach last Wednesday, an international tourist drowned directly in front of the lifeguard tower.

Since January 20 lifeguards are only on duty from 8 am until 4 pm, but with more than two hours of daylight remaining this is a recipe for disaster.

Over the festive season, from November 20 until January 20, KwaDukuza municipality extended lifeguard hours from 6am till 6pm in three shifts and hired 32 temporary lifeguards to handle the extra hours.

These lifeguards operated at the beaches between Tinley Manor and Clark Bay.

Last Wednesday Donald Choga, and his wife of four months Mirka, went swimming at Willard Beach on their first day in Ballito.

He was originally from Zimbabwe, Mirka from the Czech Republic and together they had settled in England.

The couple were honeymooning in South Africa and had already visited Johannesburg and Cape Town. Donald posted a photo of his wife at Willard Beach on Facebook just before they entered the sea with the caption “Oh Africa… its so easy to love you…”.They were seen wading in the shore break when they got into trouble and the tide swept Donald towards backline.

Responding to their cries for help, a man, who had been on the beach with his family, dived in while two surfers also paddled out to rescue the man in trouble.

IPSS Medical Rescue’s Paul Herbst, said the surfers loaded the unconscious man onto a surfboard but struggled to get him to shore due to the rough surf.

After 45 minutes of CPR by paramedics, Donald was declared dead.

His family have set up a funeral assistance fund on the gofundme website and appealed to our readers to support the collection.

A message from his family: “Donald Choga, no-one absolutely no-one has a bad word to say about him, he was a loving, straight shooting, honest, fun loving adventurous guy, he brought laughter and smiles to your face. He was always willing to help, loved his wife to bits and loved travelling.Donald lived his life to the full always on the move and always having fun. RIP Donald this was a freak accident that should never have happened.”

Lifeguard supervisor Bongani Xulu and KwaDukuza beach manager Steve Honeysett said they would approach council for an extension of the lifeguard’s summer hours till 6pm until the April holidays.

“More lifeguards would need to be hired and provision for this would need to be made for this in the budget,” said Honeysett.