By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The death toll from the devastating Eastern Cape floods has reached 57, according to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa.
The dead include high school students who were washed away when their school bus was caught in floodwaters near a river on Tuesday.
Since early June, the South African Weather Service (Saws) has issued multiple alerts warning of flooding, disrupted transport, and coastal damage. The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have borne the brunt, with widespread power outages, infrastructure damage and emergency operations in full swing.
Hlabisa and Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube joined provincial officials on the ground to assess the damage and offer support.
In the Eastern Cape, torrential rain and flooding have caused landslides, swept ripped rooftops from buildings and washed away homes.
On Wednesday afternoon, 11 June, the Eastern Cape Provincial Government confirmed that 39 people had died in the OR Tambo District alone.
Eastern Cape premier Lubabalo Mabuyane visited the scene to witness rescue efforts, and to meet affected communities in Decoligny, a village outside Mthatha.
Hundreds of residents had been left displaced, many spending the night in makeshift shelters, he said.
Mabuyane praised those who were assisting officials in locating the missing and for alerting their neighbours when the floods began.
Officials said 58 schools in Eastern Cape had been affected across three districts: OR Tambo, Amathole and Alfred Nzo.
“For all these years that I’ve lived, I’ve never seen something like this,” Mabuyane said.
On 10 June, Hlabisa convened an urgent meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Disaster Management to assess relief efforts. The committee — comprising leaders from all levels of government, the South African Local Government Association and traditional leaders — coordinated technical teams to repair damaged infrastructure and ensure clean water via tankers.
Hlabisa said the flooding around the town of Mthatha was “a real disaster and a catastrophe when we have so many people dying.”
He said that municipalities would work to ensure rebuilding took place on safe ground, away from flood plains.
“These people were not allocated here by the municipalities, who should have considered the area where they are locating people and people decided to build on their own.”
Gwarube said that arrangements were being made to reschedule the mid-year exams at schools hit by the floods.
“Remember, we have an exam time table and schedule which is incredibly tight, many of these kids are writing June exams, so we have to make sure that we have already postponed the two exams that were being written, we have to make sure that we have contingency plans for them.”
In neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal, 68 schools across nine districts have been damaged but no fatalities have been recorded.
The heavy snow, rains and gale force winds have also left nearly 500,000 homes without electricity since Tuesday – and state-owned power provider Eskom says efforts are being made to restore connections.
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