Cousins drown on first beach outing since pandemic, says family
The family of two teenage girls who drowned at a beach in Durban on New Year’s Day says it was their first outing to the beach, after the pandemic.
Alwande Mkhasibe and Philasande Makhaye, both 16, were swimming at Pirates Beach with their family and members of their community from Pietermaritzburg when they tragically drowned.
Alwande's body was recovered later that day.
Philasande is still missing.
Alwande’s grief-stricken mother Nontobeko Makhaye says the two were inseparable.
She says the community travelled together by bus to spend the day in Durban, which was their first beach trip in three years.
Makhaye says her sister, Philasande’s mother, is inconsolable.
"I am going through a lot of emotions right now. I don’t know what to say. Because I have a four-year-old child, which goes to crèche the both of them would look after the baby as I am working. I only came back home on Fridays.
"I don’t know what to do because I have to go back to work. It’s even worse for my sister because she’s not working she survived with her daughter’s grant money. I really don’t know what she’s going to do."
