A total of 140 children from Soweto have been registered in the official Central Gauteng Aquatics swimming galas to compete against the best swimmers in Joburg for the 2018/2019 Joburg Swimming Pool Season.
Their success in the pool can be traced back 2001 when the Learn to Swim programme was first introduced in City of Johannesburg pools.
This Swimming South Africa-founded programme formed part of a wider water safety project to get young people confident around pools.
Young swimmers from Joburg pools were recruited and had to go through an intense Learn to Swim (LTS) training courses to become the first qualified group of LTS instructors. As a result of the training, some of them were appointed by the City of Johannesburg as lifeguards to further implement the LTS programme in Joburg and neighboring municipalities.
“This made Joburg the breeding space for lifeguards. And as their confidence grew, improvements were observed in the breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke, posture and speed,” said Jean Geluk, the City’s Swimming Project Coordinator.
Although Swimming SA and CGA had to curb this programme due to finances in 2014, the City of Joburg improvised by focusing on basic swimming techniques to ensure that at least the LTS programme did not come to an end.
“In keeping the programme alive, talented individuals were scouted, coached by qualified LTS training instructors and placed in various swimming clubs across the city. The focus was more on how to enter the swimming pool safely, breathe and keep the eyes open while swimming, how to avoid drowning and recognise the pools’ deep-end and shallow-end. These basic techniques gave confidence to bathers,” said Geluk.
Mandla Mdlalose, Deputy Director for Sport and Recreation in the City of Johannesburg, said that to date 10 swimming pools in Soweto have clubs that are registered with the Soweto Swimming Club (SSC).
“We are happy with the support we receive from parents as some are part of the clubs’ executives and closely work with COJ Lifeguards in the LTS programme,” said Mdlalose.
“Unfortunately we are unable to introduce mass participation LTS programme at our pools in a larger scale due to minimum number of lifeguards.”
For more information on City of Johannesburg swimming programmes, please contact Geluk at jeang@joburg.org.za
