2009/01/26
HORRIFIED onlookers yesterday told how they tried to drag a Wild Coast lifeguard from the jaws of what is believed to have been a tiger shark at a popular beach.
Sikhanyiso Bangilizwe, 27, died from massive injuries minutes after he was savaged in the attack at Second Beach in Port St Johns – the second fatal attack on a lifeguard in two years.
The drama at the scenic beach happened at 2pm when Bangalizwe and another friend went for a swim to cool down from the heat.
Fellow lifeguard Gerald Mtakati told the Daily Dispatch he saw his friend scream and hit the water, before it started turning red with blood.
The lifeguards immediately launched a rubber dinghy into the surf.
“I just saw blood in the water and quickly grabbed a rubber duck. When I got to him, the shark had already bitten off his hand and his lower back, it was coming in for the third bite,” he said.
Mtakati, 32, said Bangilizwe was not moving at this stage. His body was just floating in the water.
“By the time I got to him, he was not moving and the shark was on the other side, heading towards him.
“He was in the centre, between me and shark.”
“I went past him and headed straight towards the shark to distract it from going in for another bite,” said Mtakati.
He said the noise from the engine of the dinghy scared the shark off.
“Sharks don’t like noise so, it eventually left and I went back to him and put his body into the rubber duck.”
“He was already dead and all I could see was just red meat and blood on his body,” said a shocked Mtakati.
“I was not thinking when I went out there, I was acting on instinct. I only realised what I had done afterwards and I started shaking,” he added.
Mtakati said a lot of people on the beach witnessed the terrible ordeal.
Community members from Mthumbane Location where Bangilizwe lived said they were devastated.
“You have no idea how this has affected the community. People cannot believe this has happened. Nobody wants to go to the beach anymore,” said Bangilizwe’s neighbour, Malwanda Nombele, 23, who is also a lifeguard.
Pictures of Bangilizwe’s mutilated body could not be published, but were used to identify the type of shark implicated in the attack.
“Looking at the bites (on Bangilizwe’s body) it was a tiger shark,” Buffalo City Municipality chief marine services officer Siani Tinley said.
The lifeguard had massive injuries, with a bite from his right thigh and his back sliced open by the shark’s razor sharp teeth.
His right hand was bitten off just above the wrist.
Long-time resident and local historian John Costello said Port St Johns had never had sharks until two years ago.
Costello said one possible reason for the sudden arrival of sharks wa s the problem of sew age flowing into the ocean and the lack of toilet facilities around the beach.
“If you know sharks then you will know that they have a very good sense of smell, they are attracted by scent or chumming (luring) as it is known.”
“This is the end result of an environmental disaster,” he said.
Costello said the first attack in the area happened two years ago when another lifeguard was attacked and killed by a tiger shark at Second Beach.
According to a Daily Dispatch report at the time, it was the first proven shark attack in the area.
The 24-year-old lifeguard’s body was never recovered.
Only his torn flipper was found washed up on the beach with bite marks all over it.
A Natal Sharks Board spokesperson was quoted by the Dispatch at the time saying the bite marks resembled those of a tiger shark, one of the most aggressive of the species. - By GCINA NTSALUBA
|