The refresher camp commenced from the early hours of Sunday morning, 11 May 2025 with 20 members gathering across Gauteng.
Led by Gauteng, Rapid Response Services Lieutenant Colonels Xolani Msimango and Roland Booysen, Tshwane and Sedibeng Water Police and Diving Services departed to their annual mandatory ocean training camp in Sodwana Bay, KwaZulu-Natal until Friday 16 May.
The purpose; an intense camp of daily dives and refresher classes in upholding SAPS operational standards and commercial diving regulations.
The Gauteng WPDS comprises 34 members, which includes divers, supervisors and vessel handlers backed up by a support staff serving them and other specialised Units within the Rapid Response Services.
Their services are a voluntary secondary function, meaning that Water Policing and Diving Services is not a fixed establishment with its own members, but that the members conducting this function do so over and above their normal, daily police duties.
Their WPDS duties include participating in operations to recover drowned victims and exhibits. Beyond this, they contribute to rescues, crime prevention, exhibitions and the policing of large events near dams and rivers.
The WPDS regularly collaborate with the SAPS K9 Search and Rescue, SAPS Air Wing and Drone Unit as well as other Gauteng Emergency Services.
These collaborations play crucial roles in the extensive efforts demonstrated in, amongst others, the recent recovery done in the Jukskei River of the three missing SAPS members and their vehicle. Searches are conducted through various means, including air, canoe, boat and members on foot.
Divers employ diverse underwater techniques in dams, covering expansive areas in the search for victims. Their efforts are complemented by sniffer dogs from the K9 Search and Rescue Unit, capable of detecting gases released by a submerged body and locations identified by eye witnesses.
The achievements and work rate of the WPDS over the past 2024/25 financial year which are 285 callouts with 2077 hours spent on scenes, 245 individual practises, a total in excess of 23000 minutes total bottom time, 177 bodies recovered, 16 rescues, 1008 exhibits recovered (crime related evidence which can include firearms, vehicles, knives, robbed or stolen goods and fishing nets), 138 crime prevention operations and 27 events policed.
Checking in throughout the day at Sodwana Bay did not mean a Sunday afternoon rest. The week included an intense program with two dives daily from Monday till Wednesday commencing at 06:00 and class presentations thereafter covering various dive aspects.
No matter the experience, every dive starts with a safety and protocol briefing as per Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA) presented by the dive supervisor. Members did an average dive bottom time of 40 minutes to depths fluctuating between 9 and 12 metres coupled with strong current surges. The day will end with a class presentations dealing with dive tables, which regulate everything a diver does.
Tables are an essential general reference for all divers ruling the sit out time in between dives to control nitrogen build up in the blood. The team further engaged in an outride to 9 Mile, a remote coastal part of Sodwana Bay. The route was on the beach via the coastline done with six SAPS vehicles and 20 members.
The purpose is to advance off-road skills and demonstrate vehicle capabilities as well as assisting with visible policing.
The experience allows essential team building and confidence when navigating paths to remote rural scenes encountered regularly in Gauteng.
The team ended the camp on a lighter note, showing their softer compassionate side as they dropped off pet food, which they collected between themselves as a donation to Mabaso Animal Shelter, a local charity looking after abandoned animals.
Gauteng Water Police: Annual refresher camp Sodwana: 11 – 16 May 2025https://t.co/KmsdtpS8i5#ArriveAlive #WaterSafety @SAPoliceService pic.twitter.com/6XXq2HlWiY
– Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) May 24, 2025
