‘Divers could have saved Mthatha children’

EASTERN Cape authorities remain tight-lipped about the number of available divers in the Mthathta area from the police diving unit, the OR Tambo District municipality and the provincial government. 

This comes as the death toll from the recent floods had risen to 95 by Tuesday, with search and recovery operations still ongoing. 

Following the June 10 incident, residents expressed concerns over the number of divers in the area, saying if there were more divers available during the emergency, they believed more lives could have been saved. 

The Cape Times on Tuesday approached the provincial government, the Eastern Cape police and the OR Tambo District municipality to enquire about the number of divers in the area. 

None of them responded  to requests for comment by deadline. 

Mthatha resident Sonwabo Mankuntywana said the community were still experiencing severe trauma, with parents still crying daily in search of their children. 

“There are many people who are still missing. People lost their children, there is so much trauma, they are crying every day looking for their children, oh my children where are they.” 

Mankuntywana, a resident at the Efata complex, less than a kilometer from where the events took place, said that night he could not sleep. 

“I can't even explain what was going on. There was lightning, running, the whole night. I couldn't sleep then I just saw a light in my windows, I was wondering what was going on, is it an accident or what,” he said.  

A school  bus travelling to Jumba Senior Secondary School was also swept away by rising water levels.   Mankuntywana said children were hanging on trees from 6am waiting for help. 

“In my 40 years of living here, I have never experienced floods like this. There were about  four school children who were holding onto the tree from 6am. About 8am one said ‘I see a snake I'm tired of holding this tree’. There was no help for two hours. The people came out, others were calling out to them  to hold on. There were about three kids who held on until 11am to 12pm to get help. There was no helicopter, no divers yet. They tried to call a diver from East London, which is three hours to drive.” 

Gift of the Givers project manager,  Ali Salbay said they received a request from local police for assistance on June 11 and immediately deployed resources.

“Gift of the Givers search and rescue teams were activated. We sent team members from Gauteng and Cape Town. We deployed an additional team from Limpopo last Thursday. This morning our fourth search and rescue team was activated, six highly specialised guys from North West. It is now search and recovery as it is impossible for anyone to be found alive now. 

He said search and recovery teams were expecting to find more bodies now that water levels had dropped significantly, creating more visibility in terms of locating bodies.

“We are searching through the Mthatha riverbank, while we are moving from area to area along the river bank many people are still coming to us to ask about their missing family members and missing neighbours.” 

He said because many people had lost their cellphones in the floods, they were unable to report these cases to police which made it difficult to determine the exact number of bodies still missing. 

“We are now moving with police on site, to register and report missing persons as we search through these areas.”

The Eastern Cape provincial government said integrated search and recovery teams were in the past week “boosted by the presence of the South African Defence Force members who continued with the search”. 

“From (Tuesday), the search and recovery teams will be joined by a team deployed from the North West Provincial Government, increasing the number of teams to four (4).  The provincial government has on behalf of the people of the Eastern Cape welcomed the support of government institutions and non-governmental organisations who have been part of rescue and recovery efforts, including the provision of humanitarian support.”

Cape Times