Department Expands Water Safety Programme to Zululand
With almost two weeks before the end of final quarter of the 2016/17 financial year, organisations would naturally be winding up their affairs and slowing down on service delivery.
However, that is not the case with the KwaZulu-Natal Government, in particular the Department of Sport and Recreation under the leadership of MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi.
During this period the Department continues to implement service delivery innovations to benefit different communities in the Province.
This coming weekend will see the conclusion of the Department’s new Siyaswima Water Safety programme in Ulundi under the Zululand District Municipality.
The programme is part of the Water Safety Campaign launched by MEC Sithole-Moloi in Margate, on the south coast in December last year. The campaign involves teaching children about water safety as an intervention to curb the high levels of drownings in the Province.
Siyaswima is run in partnership with KZN Aquatics which has supplied professional swimming instructors and equipment. It teaches primary school going leaners from vulnerable areas water safety by equipping them with swimming skills.
The programme is split over three week-ends. Learners from identified local schools are brought to a single venue with adequate accommodation and swimming facilities where they are taught everything they need to know about swimming and water safety.
The Zululand Programme is held at Nyanya Resort in Mahlabathini, near Ulundi. It has about 200 learners and their teachers who are also taught swimming skills so that they can continue teaching other learners.
The progamme has already run for two weekends and wraps up this coming week-end from Saturday to Sunday (11-12 March).
Children under the programme have already made significant progress over the past two weekends. Many of them were getting into the water for the first time but are now able to swim across the swimming pool unassisted.
The Siyaswima programme will soon be rolled out to all other districts in an effort to curtail the alarming number of drownings in the Province.