The City’s Community Services and Health Directorate will once again implement the very popular Identikidz programme, designed to keep children safe at some of Cape Town’s busiest beaches this festive season.
Identikidz is coordinated by the Community, Arts and Culture Development Department (CACD). The concept is simple, but its impact is critical to ensuring the safety of children – with hundreds of reunions each season.
How Identikidz Works
Parents and caregivers are able to register children at participating beaches – they are issued with an armband that contains a unique serial number. Details of the armband are recorded along with the caregiver’s details, so in the event that a child is separated from their group during the course of their beach visit, they can be quickly reunited.
‘We are delighted that we can once again provide this important safety programme on our beautiful beaches and would like to encourage parents to please make use of the service. We all share a responsibility to create safer spaces for our children, and our beaches are no exception – especially considering how busy these spaces get over the peak festive season. Identikidz adds a lot of value, but caregivers are still responsible for ensuring that their children are supervised at all times,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Francine Higham.
Programme Success in 2024
During the 2024 festive season, the City tagged 133 730 children over five priority weekends, with 302 children safely reunited with their loved ones, thanks to the programme.
Programme Dates for 2025/2026
The programme will run over 15 days, from 09:00 until 18:30 on the following dates:
15, 16, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, and 28 December 2025; and 1, 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, and 18 January 2026.
Participating Beaches
Participating beaches include: Big Bay, Camps Bay, Fish Hoek, Gordon’s Bay, Harmony Park, Melkbosstrand, Milnerton Beach, Mnandi, Monwabisi, Muizenberg, Sea Point and surrounding area, Silwerstroom, Strand and Strandfontein.
The service will be available at Maiden’s Cove on 26 December and 1 January.
What CACD Officials Will Do
To help protect children during their beach visit, CACD officials will:
• With the permission of parents or caretakers, register children and issue them with an identification tag/wrist band
• Assist with the reunification of a lost or displaced child
• Work closely with the provincial Department of Social Development, the City’s enforcement agencies and the South African Police Service to ensure the safety and reunification of a lost or displaced child with their family
Staff Deployment
The CACD Department will deploy 53 officials and 159 EPWP staff members who will work closely with other City departments, including the Disaster Risk Management Centre.
