Swimmers Describe Janine Lochrenberg's Fatal Shark Attack

Efforts by fellow swimmers to rescue a member of their open water swimming community ended in tragedy when 65-year-old Janine Lochrenberg suffered fatal injuries in a shark attack at Orient Beach in KuGompo City, Eastern Cape, shortly after 8:00 on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The retired nuclear radiographer and musician was swimming when she signaled that she was in distress. According to SABC News, Lochrenberg belonged to the East London Open Water Swimmers Association.

Fellow swimmer Mike Louw, a friend and Daily Dispatch journalist, described how members of the group responded after noticing her call for help in the 16-degree Celsius water. Two friends reached Lochrenberg first, and the group brought her toward shore with assistance from her son, an Olympian, Louw told SABC News. The swimmers realized she had sustained severe injuries consistent with a shark bite.

Recounting the rescue attempt, Louw described the moment the swimmers reached her.

"We all swam to her and when we got there… I realised, we all realised, she had been bitten by a shark and she was in a very bad way." Louw said. Lochrenberg was wearing a magnetic shark deterrent band when the attack occurred, according to Louw. Her injuries affected her right arm and thigh, with the damage believed to have resulted from a single bite.

A medic who was part of the swimming group provided emergency treatment after Lochrenberg was brought ashore. Despite those efforts, she died at the scene from her injuries. The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality subsequently closed Orient Beach and Eastern Beach until further notice. The restrictions followed the fatal incident and were accompanied by public safety warnings against entering the affected waters.

South African Police Service officers transferred Lochrenberg's body to State Forensic Pathology Services and opened an inquest docket, according to the source report. The investigation is intended to address the circumstances surrounding the death. Marine biologists have linked changing patterns of shark encounters along the Eastern Cape coastline to broader ecological pressures. These include the eastward redistribution of great white sharks toward Algoa Bay, which scientists associate with orca predation, commercial fishing pressures and coastal shark nets.