Staff Reporter
Three people have been confirmed dead and three young men remain missing after a mass drowning incident in rip currents at Pennington Beach on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast.
Rescuers resumed the search at dawn on Friday, after the incident on New Year’s Day, when several swimmers were reported in distress near the tidal pool.
The distress calls were answered by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), Rocky Bay rescue swimmers, police and lifeguards, the NSRI said on Friday.
“At first light on Friday, 2 January 2026, NSRI Rocky Bay, Police Search and Rescue, the SA Police Services and Umdoni lifeguards resumed extensive search efforts for what was believed to be two males that remained missing following the mass drowning incident in the early evening on New Year’s Day,” the NSRI said.
It said lifeguards managed to pull three people from the water on Thursday evening.
“One male (21) was sadly declared deceased by paramedics. The remaining two casualties, believed to be a young adult male and an 18-year-old female, were not injured.”
Police later recovered a second man, also aged 21, dead on the beach near Pennington at about 9.30pm on Thursday.
On Friday morning, an 18-year-old woman was found dead on Bazley Beach and was linked by police to the Pennington incident, bringing the confirmed death toll from the case to three, with three men still unaccounted for, according to the NSRI.
Police opened inquest dockets into the deaths, while search and rescue teams continued to comb the coastline and waters offshore for the missing men.
Rip currents can form quickly and are among the leading hazards for swimmers along the country’s coastline.
The NSRI and municipal officials urged beachgoers to only swim at beaches with lifeguards and to heed their warnings.
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