3 Eastern Cape Children Rescued, Boy Still Missing at the Beach

• Five children were visiting the beach with their family in the Eastern Cape when they went missing on 1 June 2025
• The children were visiting the Mdumbi Beach when they were swept away by the rip currents
• Four children were rescued, and the fifth child is still missing; a search and rescue is underway to find him

For seven years, Tebogo Mokwena, a journalist at Briefly News in Johannesburg, South Africa, covered a range of topics, including accidents, fires, outbreaks, nature, weather, and natural disaster-related incidents, at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

EASTERN CAPE — Authorities in the Eastern Cape have mounted a rescue effort to locate a seven-year-old boy who was washed away by the rip currents at a beach in the Eastern Cape on 1 June 2025.

Eastern Cape boy goes missing at beach

According to SABC News, the missing boy and his family were visiting Mdumbi Beach. They were swimming during the outgoing tide when they were caught by rip currents. The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) rescued four children. A fifth child, a seven-year-old, is still missing.

One of the children was treated for non-fatal drowning symptoms on the beach and transported to a hospital, where she is expected to make a recovery. Lifeguards, Mdumbi Backpackers volunteers, and the South African Police Service are continuing the search for the missing boy.

Drownings in South Africa

• A man and a woman drowned in two separate incidents on the South Coast in November 2024 after they were swept away by a rip current
• A teenager lost his life in January 2025 after he saved his friend from drowning, only to drown in the process
• One woman died in April after the taxi she was travelling in was swept away by a strong current caused by flooding in KwaZulu-Natal
• A woman died in February on the South Coast in KwaZulu-Natal after she slipped into the raging waters and was swept away

Statistics on drowning

According to Child Safe, South Africa is ranked as one of the top 45 countries in the world with a high drowning rate of 4.06 per 100,000 population. Over 2,500 people die yearly to fatal drowning. A third are children under 18 years of age.

Most of the children who drown are under the age of four. The NRSI has, over the past two decades, educated more than 4 million people in water safety. In 2023, they trained 905,185 people and taught 17,998 in-water survival swimming lessons.

2 Limpopo boys struck by lightning while swimming

In a related article, Briefly News reported that two children died in January 2024 in Polokwane, Limpopo, when lightning struck them. The duo was swimming with their friends when the incident happened.

The children were swimming in the Makgodu River when lightning struck the group. Three of them were rushed to the nearest hospital, where they were treated. However, two died. South Africans were torn by the news.

"We will see y'all at the wedding feast with his majesty Jesus Christ presiding after the rapture," one said.

Source: Briefly News