The City’s festive season Identikidz programme drew to a close this past weekend. More than 123 000 children were tagged, with Strand, Muizenberg and Strandfontein emerging as the busiest among the participating beaches. Read more below:
The Identikidz programme is coordinated by the City’s Community, Arts and Culture Development Department.
The annual child safety intervention kicked off on 14 December 2024, giving caregivers the option to register their children for added peace of mind while enjoying their beach days.
This season’s instalment ran over six weekends, compared to the previous season which ran over seven. The most recent campaign tagged 123 579 children, and reunited 354 with their families. A total of 11 children were handed over to the Provincial Department of Social Development as their relatives had not been tracked down by nightfall.
At the same time last season, 120 932 children had been tagged and 293 reunited.
‘We tagged nearly 3 000 more children this season, and the number of children reunited increased by 61. This is proof, once more, of the value that Identikidz offers. The programme is also a reminder that caregivers have a responsibility to ensure that the children in their care are safe at all times, not just during beach outings. I am very concerned that nearly a dozen children had to be handed over to social workers as our staff could not locate their caregivers by day’s end. It begs many questions about child safety in general – not least of which is how anyone can go for hours without realising their child is missing, or not setting out to find them,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Patricia van der Ross.
Strand Beach emerged as the most popular and busiest beach once again, with 19 741 children tagged over the period and 77 reunions.
Muizenberg was in second place, with 14 274 children tagged (72 reunions), and Strandfontein came in third place with 13 878 children tagged (74 reunions).
The three beaches also accounted for 223 (63%) of all reunions.
