RICHARDS Bay’s South Pier has once again come under scrutiny regarding the safety of anglers.
This follows the death of yet another angler who fell to his death while fishing off the pier last week.
Babs Moodley (59) seemingly lost his balance while attempting to land a big catch.
According to a source, the angling club regularly cleans the slippery slime off the dolosse with chemicals, but there is a lack of safety signs to alert anglers about the dangers at the popular fishing site.
The club had offered to pay for and erect the signs, but Transnet National Port Authority apparently said they would do it, but never did.
Chairman of Richards Bay Harbour Personnel Angling Club Piet Nieuwenhuis said it was an unfortunate incident.
‘We are very sorry to hear about the passing of Babs. Our condolences go out to his family at this time,’ said Nieuwenhuis.
In April this year well known Empangeni resident Nigel Quaite also lost his life while fishing off the dolosse at South Pier after reportedly being struck by a freak wave during a fishing competition.
Speaking to the ZO, Babs’ son Keygan (31) said he was at work when he received the news.
‘One of my father’s friends who was fishing with him on the day, called my manager and told him what happened.
‘I couldn’t believe it when I was given the news, I was heartbroken,’ said an emotional Keygan.
‘My father and I shared a passion for fishing. He was a regular fisherman and would go at least once or twice a week.’
Babs, a resident of Brackenham, was father to Keygan and Pregan and husband to Lee Moodley.
Recovery operation
According to NSRI Richards Bay, their duty crew was activated at 7.25am on Thursday when the report came in.
Dennis Goncalves was a witness who alerted the rescue services about the incident.
‘I was fishing about 500m away from Babs, who was well known to all of us who fish here.
‘My friend Jay shouted to me that Babs appeared to have a big fish on his line.
‘We immediately ran to see if we could assist, but when we got there we only found his rod and he was nowhere to be seen.
‘We looked down into the dolosse and still could not see him, so I raced back to the clubhouse and we called the police, who in turn alerted the rescue services.’
SAPS, police search and rescue and diver crews, the City of uMhlathuze Fire and Rescue Services and IPSS Ambulance and Rescue Services also responded.
‘We had tried unsuccessfully to recover the body and even the professionals battled for quite some time to get him free,’ said Goncalves.
‘We can only assume that he over-balanced and slipped while trying to get the fish off the line.’
Babs’ body was recovered from in-between the dolosse in a technical rescue operation and he was declared dead by paramedics at the scene.
His funeral took place at the weekend in Brackenham.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.
For news straight to your phone invite us:
WhatsApp – 072 069 4169
Instagram – zululand_observer
