[imagesource: Mandla Langa]

According to numbers released last night by the KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs department, at least 45 people have died as a result of the province’s flooding.

Including those killed in Ndwedwe and KwaDukuza, at least 59 lives have been lost.

In addition, the eThekwini municipality reports that in excess of 2 000 RDP homes had been damaged and more than 4 000 shacks swept away.

Footage shared yesterday showed luxury apartments in Umdloti, Durban North being swamped. In Hillcrest, someone even whipped out their surfboard and slid down the flooded fairway at Cotswold Downs.

That’s the most temporary of reprieves from what is a truly horrendous situation. Let’s start with an aerial shot of the aftermath of the flooding in Umdloti

Drone footage shot yesterday showed scenes of destruction across the province:

Bridges and roads have been wrecked, and the provincial government has called for help from the SA National Defence Force:

In the KwaNdengezi suburb of Pinetown, the situation is so bad that residents fear that dead bodies will end up decomposing.

News24 reports:

These were the sombre words of Sizwe Mbotho, a diminutively framed middle-aged man, who stood next to the body of his six-year-old son, Khethokuhle, covered in a white sheet, waiting desperately for hours for emergency services to assist.

He had walked 10 kilometres carrying his son after the little boy lost his life when when the Mbotho family home in the Dassenhoek Area, KwaNdengezi, collapsed due to a landslide amid catastrophic flooding that wreaked havoc in KwaZulu-Natal.

News24 found Mbotho desperately trying to flag down police cars and the very few emergency services vehicles that passed by the road.

All the responses were the same: “We are rushing to other areas where dozens of people have lost their lives there.”

Those in the area say the death toll is likely far, far higher than the official count released by authorities.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to visit KwaZulu-Natal today. Here’s hoping he serves up more than empty words.

[source:news24]