Zandile Ndlovu’s Black Mermaid Foundation aims to introduce the ocean to the country’s Black youths, millions of whom live in impoverished shanty townships, where beach trips are a luxury and swimming skills in short supply.

Sitting around Ndlovu, 33, South Africa’s first Black – and Black female – free dive instructor, the children learn how to bite down onto the snorkel mouthpiece when breathing face down in the water, among other skills.

Established last year, the Foundation currently pays for the lessons but is looking for funders to ensure its longevity.

“The water space has not always been diverse, and I wanted to create a space where diverse representation in the ocean is possible,” she said.

Ndlovu gave up her own consultancy business which she ran for five years after being employed in the corporate services sector.

“My joy is the moment when one of the kids says, ‘Oh look it’s a fish, oh look it’s a starfish’. It means they have transcended the fear to actually look beneath the surface,” Ndlovu added, speaking after a lesson in which students entered shallow waters behind a flotation ring in the placid but icy Atlantic Ocean off Cape Town’s Long Beach.

“I’m happy and I enjoyed it,” said Somila Tise, a 12-year-old Grade 6 student from Langa as she emerged shivering from the water.

Trying snorkelling while on holiday to Bali in 2016, Ndlovu fell in love with the ocean. She swiftly got her scuba-diving certificate the following year. Last year, she received an instructor’s certificate in free diving, with no equipment.

Before South Africa’s first democratic vote in 1994 ended white-minority rule, myriad apartheid laws legalised racial segregation across all facets of life. Public spaces, such as bathrooms and beaches, were reserved for whites only.