Tragedy struck hours before the final day of the SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha, when security officials and the police found a guard’s body floating in the Newton Park Swimming Pool.
Though initial reports indicated there may have been a break-in at the premises, with the security guard killed in the line of duty, preliminary investigations by police show no signs of forced entry and foul play is not suspected.
Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said an inquest docket had been opened to investigate the 45-year-old man’s death.
“Two guards, contracted to a private security firm, were on duty at the Newton Park Swimming Pool from Sunday night,” she said.
“At about 2.25am on Monday, one of the guards heard a noise on the opposite side of the pool where her colleague was seated.
“She immediately contacted her supervisor.
“When police officers and the supervisor arrived at the scene they discovered the [man] floating in the pool.”
A postmortem will be conducted to establish the exact cause of death.
Naidu said it was not known yet whether the guard died from natural causes or drowned after falling into the pool.
The other security guard had to unlock the door to let police in and there were no signs of forced entry at the venue.
“Nothing was missing from the venue and equipment used during the swimming event, including computers, monitors and a range of other electronic goods, were left untouched,” Naidu said.
She said there had been two cases of theft out of motor vehicles reported to the police during the course of the event, where cars were broken into in the parking area, but no other incidents were reported at the swimming pool at the weekend.
HRG Security Services management confirmed that its guards were on duty at the swimming championships and that one of them died at the pool in the early hours of Monday.
It said the circumstances around the incident were unclear and referred all questions to the police.
Police declined to name the man until his next of kin had been notified.
Municipal spokesperson Kupido Baron said the relevant authorities were notified about the incident and immediately went to the Newton Park Swimming Pool.
The guard’s body was removed from the pool shortly after 5am.
Eastern Cape Aquatics president Stephen Haswell confirmed the incident and said the investigation was in the hands of the police.
“The event closed for the day shortly before 8pm [Sunday] and the rest of the staff left and locked up at around 9pm, leaving only two security guards on duty.
“We only learnt of the unfortunate incident the following morning.
“The police were notified and are investigating,” Haswell said.
Soon after the police left the premises, the final day of the national swimming event got under way.
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