Cape Town: The Community Services and Health Directorate of the City of Cape Town will implement popular the Identikidz Programme for this year. The programme is designed to keep the 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 ensure the safety of the children, with hundreds of reunions each season.
The parents and caregivers can 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 if a child is separated from their group during their beach visit, they can be quickly reunited.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Services and Health – Councillor Francine Higham said that they are delighted that they can one again provide this important safety programme on the beautiful beaches and would like to encourage the parents to make use of the service.
They all share a responsibility to create safer spaces for the children and the beaches as there are no exceptions, especially if we consider 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. During the 2024 festive season, the City of Cape Town tagged 133,730 children over five priority weekends, with 302 children safely reunited with their loved ones.
The programme will be observed for over 15 days, beginning from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on the selected i.e. 15, 16, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27 and 28 Dec 2025; then on 1, 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 Jan 2026.
The beaches where the Identikidz Programme will run are Big Bay, Camps Bay, Fish Hoek, Gordon’s Bay, Harmony Park, Melkbosstrand, Milnerton Beach, Mnandi, Monwabisi, Muizenberg, Sea Point and the surrounding areas such as Silwerstroom, Strand and Strandfontein.
Furthermore, the service will be available at Maiden’s Cove on Dec 26, 2025 and Jan 01, 2026. To help in protecting the children during their beach visit, CACD officials will consider somethings, such as:
- 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
The CACD Department will deploy 53 officials and 159 EPWP staff members who will work closely with other City departments, also including the Disaster Risk Management Centre.