The belt, the shirt and the shark-bite survivor

Beach hero saved a life from bleeding away in the sand, writes Buyekezwa Makwabe

Monwabisi Sikhweyiya always wanted to be a life guard because it looked "cool".

But, since helping to save swimmer Michael Cohen's life after a shark bit off his leg in False Bay, he is being hailed as a hero around the world.

The modest shark spotter is taking his new-found fame in his stride. "I received first aid training when I worked as a life-guard," Sikhweyiya, 32, said this week.

"While this is the first time I have used it on a shark-bite victim, I've had to respond to other kinds of emergencies."

Alerted to the shark attack off Clovelly Corner last Wednesday by a fellow shark spotter, Sikhweyiya arrived as two men who had seen the drama from the shore were helping the gravely injured Cohen onto the beach.

Cohen had ignored warnings not to enter the water due to shark activity.

"I took off my shirt and pressed it to the wound, and then took off my belt and tied it around the stump of his leg to stem the blood flow," he said.

Sikhweyiya, described by his colleagues as level-headed and cool in an emergency, is one of the original members of Shark Spotters - an NGO set up by a surfer, Chris Bertish, and local businessmen who saw profits take a dip after a spate of shark attacks seven years ago.

There have been 1014 shark sightings since the project was launched in 2004, according to managers of the programme.

Sikhweyiya initially managed the programme from a surfer's hut 50m above Muizenberg beach where he watched out for sharks. When he saw one, he would radio Rasta David - a car guard on the beach - to alert him. Rasta David would then sound the shark alarm siren and get swimmers out of the water. Today Sikhweyiya coordinates all the shark spotters.

"[Sikhweyiya] is a rock and I don't know where we'd be without him," said Sarah Titley, an office manager for Shark Spotters.

In a report on the attack on Cohen, the City of Cape Town said that without Sikhweyiya's "immediate, rational and professional response, the victim more than likely would have bled to death on the beach".

Shark Spotters has expanded and now operates at four main beaches, including Noordhoek and Glencairn.

Shark researcher Alison Kock said the spotting programme was unique to Cape Town and South Africa, and was more than an early warning system - it educated the public, generated awareness about sharks and created jobs for locals.