The death toll from the recent devastating floods in the Eastern Cape has risen to 88, as authorities intensify search and rescue efforts for several missing people.
On Sunday, Ahmed Bham, head of Gift of the Givers’ search and rescue team, told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that the airwing of the South African Police Service has been instrumental in finding the bodies.
“We have a multi-disciplinary search and rescue team consisting of the South African Police Service, Department of Health and Gift of the Givers. We said over the next two days, we are going to intensify our searches, and we are lucky to have the (SAPS) airwing assisting us. We were in the flight as well to look at the Mthatha Dam, flying to the rivers, when we recovered two bodies at the same place yesterday (Saturday),” said Bham.
“While hovering and doing our searches we saw that something was odd in the water. We sent in our rescue diver and he confirmed that it was a third body. Our other teams are working around the Mthatha River quite intensively with the ‘crocs’ – the boats that they use in this type of situation, along the river on both sides, combing the area with K9s.”
On Saturday, reported that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu confirmed the revised death toll, up from 78 the previous day, in a meeting with officers and rescue personnel.
More than 38 people have been rescued thus far, while search and rescue teams remain on the ground recovering additional bodies, SAPS spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.
This comes as families continue to search morgues for loved ones who went missing during last week’s catastrophic weather events, which caused severe flooding to engulf parts of Mthatha and surrounding areas in the early hours of Tuesday morning, SABC News reported.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited some of the affected communities on Friday, where he expressed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families in the affected communities.
The president also visited the collapsed Efata Bridge in Mthata, where a taxi transporting school children was swept away, killing at least six learners as well as the driver and conductor, while others remain missing.
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