Guard saves man from drowning

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A Mossel Bay man has been honoured for his alertness. He saved a man who had fallen into the water at the jetty at the yacht marina in the harbour.

It was 26 May, at 11:00 and Lennox Mqolomba, a security guard, was on duty.

There were strong currents, pulling and pushing the boats in the marina.

Lennox saw a man enter the jetty. He was the owner of a small motor boat and proceeded to try to secure his boat. The rope had broken off and the craft was swinging around.

Suddenly Lennox looked again and noticed the man had disappeared. Then Lennox saw he had fallen into the water and was hanging on to his boat. Lennox jumped into the water to help the man, but battled to hoist him on to his boat.

Just then, Pieter Swanepoel, the owner of Aquamarine at Sea, the catamaran charter company, walked past.

Pieter said: "I noticed two guys in the water and I thought it was pretty cold to be in the water and then I saw they were fully clothed. I called to them, but they could barely answer me because they were in shock and were gasping from the cold.

"Lennox was trying to pull the boat owner out of the water between the engines."

"I jumped into the boat, grabbed the man by the shoulders and helped Lennox get him into the boat."

Pieter helped the boat owner tie up his craft and then the boat owner went home immediately to get dry and put on warm clothes.

Gale force winds
The weather in Mossel Bay had been extremely cold and rainy, with gale force winds that week. It was the week that trees were uprooted and electricity outages took place because of the wind damage.

The boat owner rescued by Lennox, did not wish to be named because he did not want people to make a fuss, he said.

Because of the strong current in the harbour, he was unable to climb into his boat which was adrift, and unable to swim the 10 metres to a yacht nearby.

Pieter said: "If Lennox had not helped him, he would have drowned. His hands were shaking from shock."

The rescued man was so grateful that he gave Lennox a sum of cash. Pieter also gave him money, plus a bottle of vodka in a holder. He had a plaque engraved with Lennox's name on it and affixed it to the holder. When Pieter fetched the plaque, Bardin's Jewellers in Heiderand would not take payment for the engraving because they were so impressed with Lennox's vigilance and selflessness.

Coincidentally Lennox and the boat owner are the same age - 63.