The heavy rains that battered the province throughout the festive season continued this week, with flooding affecting parts of the rain-ravaged region, and there’s still more to come.Homes and infrastructure have been damaged, with even steel railway lines being washed away by the relentless downpour.
The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), together with the King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) local municipality, in the Eastern Cape, have conducted an intergovernmental site assessment of the R411 road between Viedgesville and Coffee Bay, to evaluate progress on emergency repairs.
The road is a major entry point for tourists into the town.
The emergency repairs relate mostly to potholes, which started in November last year.
A distraught uncle from Zithulele Village near Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape says it was the smell of a decomposing corpse and flies that led the family to his niece’s body after she was swept away during flooding a week ago. His niece, 18-year-old Andiswa Mazwi, is one of eight people confirmed to have died and whose bodies have been recovered following the torrential rains and flooding across the OR Tambo District Municipality since last Friday.