Donate Shop Find a Base Call for Help Now

NSRI EMERGENCY
OPERATION CENTRE (EOC)

087 094 9774

BCMM (Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality) lifeguards, while on duty at Gonubie Beach, were alerted by a man running towards the lifeguards, raising the alarm, reporting a drowning accident almost a kilometer upstream on the Gonubie River.

BCMM lifeguards responded while alerting NSRI East London, Priority Care ambulance services and the SA Police Services.

On arrival on the scene BCMM lifeguards initiated CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) efforts on an adult male who had been rescued from the water by a local teenager.

Lifeguards were joined on the scene by paramedics but despite extensive CPR efforts, after all efforts to resuscitate the man were exhausted, sadly the man was declared deceased by paramedics.

The body of the man, age 30, from Johannesburg, has been taken into the care of Police and Government Health Forensic Pathology Services.

Police have opened an Inquest docket.

Condolences are conveyed to family, friends and colleagues, of the deceased man.

It appears that three friends, work colleagues from Johannesburg, were visiting the river when, we believe, 2 of the men were swimming when the one man got into difficulties disappearing under water.

3 locals, an adult man and 2 teenagers, brothers, had reportedly seen the incident occur and one of the teenagers went to the man's aid where, assisted by his brother, he was able to locate and recover the man from the water and rescue him to the shoreline. The local adult man had run down to the beach seeking help and raising the alarm.

Next Article

NSRI assists in cross-border medical evacuation off Namibian coast

Read More

You may also like

St lucia1
RESCUE OPERATIONS  | Published: 21 July 2026

Child Rescued at St Lucia

An off-duty NSRI St Lucia crew member and his brother, a former NSRI crewman, found themselves in exactly the right place at exactly the right time on Saturday, when they spotted a young girl in trouble in the shallow surf ...

North beach durban
RESCUE OPERATIONS  | Published: 20 July 2026

Durban - 19 July One deceased, five survivors after boat capsizes off Beachwood, Durban North

Sadly, one man has died and five people survived after a boat capsized in the surf zone at Beachwood, Durban North, on Sunday evening, 19 July. NSRI Durban duty crew, alongside Police, Metro Police, Durban North Fire and Rescue Services ...