Some locals fear South African beach is ‘cursed’ following 3 deaths within 48 hours

Several superstitious locals in Cape Town, South Africa, say they suspect the beach where a former Scottish rugby player was killed last week, in a tragic paragliding accident, is ‘cursed’.

Their suspicion comes after two more deaths occurred at the beach within 48 hours of the Scotland international player, Greig Oliver, losing his life last Monday.

On Tuesday local estate agent and married mother-of-two Laureen Leps, 49, was swept off the rocks below the seawall and 500m out to sea by a wave as the high full moon spring tides took place.

Two National Sea Rescue Institute lifeboats were launched and with the help of a tourist helicopter located her in the surf. She was rescued and rushed to hospital but died in the intensive care unit.

And on Wednesday, a man in his twenties was seen falling off the rocks at almost the same spot as Leps. He too was sucked out to sea in a strong rip tide but sadly he could not be found… and his body washed up on Thursday.

The run of tragedies began on Monday when Oliver, an elite performance officer at Irish club Munster, drowned after a mid-air collision with another tandem paraglider above Cape Town. The collision sent him and his pilot crashing into the surf 50m below.

The other pilot and his passenger landed safely but the pilot of Oliver’s paraglider was forced to cut away his main chute and deploy the reserve; and they spiralled into the choppy Atlantic with five-foot swells.

Oliver’s tragic death on Rocklands Beach shocked locals as for the following two days the Cape Point Promenade was filled with ambulances, police cars and fire engines as two other locals also drowned in the surf.

A local witchdoctor – known as a sangoma – calling herself “Geesvrou” said that the three deaths all happened in succession over the spring tides of the full moon, and claimed that the “spirit god” would be “satisfied”.

Restauranteur Daniel Brink, 44, said:

“People here are very superstitious and when three people die one after the other it makes locals worried that there are darker forces at work – it is how local people are.”

Married father-of-two and a former Scotland scrum-half Oliver, 58, who represented his country at two World Cups, is believed to have drowned under the weight of his canopy which had wrapped around him.

The pilot was seen as high waves washed him and Oliver onto rocks in a heavy surf trying to pull him up from below the surface and unravel cords from the chute wrapped around him as rescuers ran to help.

They were pulled out of the water by fellow paraglider pilots and paramedics tried desperately to revive Mr Oliver but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

He had travelled to Cape Town from Ireland with his wife Fiona to cheer on their son Jack who was representing Ireland in the U-20 Rugby World Cup.

Oliver and fellow parents were in South Africa cheering on the Irish team and took a coach from their hotel to Signal Hill, which overlooks Rocklands Beach, having paid £60 for the 15-minute flight.

The six paragliding companies who work off a canvas runway on top of Signal Hill declined to comment while a Civil Aviation Authority investigation is underway.

Rocklands beach at Sea Point can be notoriously dangerous when heavy surf is present and four teenagers were swept to their deaths in 2019, while staying locally with a church group on holiday.

The three deaths in 48 hours last week shocked the local community.

An NSRI rescuer said at the scene: “We have been putting out warnings all week about the high spring tides and made it clear that the sea conditions will be treacherous over the full moon on Cape beaches.

“What happened to Mr Oliver was tragic and extremely rare but the other two deaths could have been avoided. The swells are just very large and there is always that one big wave out there if you do not take care.”

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