Eastern Cape flood death toll almost 50
The death toll from the Eastern Cape floods jumped to 49 on Wednesday afternoon.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane explained at a press briefing how the various teams have been working.
" What I have observed on the ground, arriving in the morning, was that because of the nature of the situation and how difficult the environment is there, the work of SAPS and forensics was just happening simultaneously.
"So, there were bodies that were able to be moved by forensics, and when SAPS were all over the show, they were trying to assist with other bodies. So this issue of figures, we will keep on communicating it to make sure that we get the final analysis correct."
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Mabuyane says the tally includes several pupils whose school transport vehicle was swept away by floodwaters in Mthatha.
He says the search continues for those who are still unaccounted for.
" For all these years that I've lived, I've never seen something like this. Disasters have hit our province - we are now a disaster-prone province. For the last two, three years, we've witnessed these torrential rains, but more in summer.
"We've never experienced this. We always knew that we'd have a disaster of snow in winter. We have never seen this kind of a combination of snow and torrential rains in winter simultaneously.”
