It was around 9pm on Sunday night when Nokukhanya Nsibande opened her door because heavy rain had flooded her home.
What she saw filled her with horror – a family being buried alive as the walls of the room they slept in collapsed inwards.
Nokuthula Hadebe, her daughter Keketso Matseletsele, 7, and Hadebe’s boyfriend lived in a room they rented at Nsibande’s house in Clermont.
The room had been extensively damaged by the rain.
“The wall collapsed in front of me. I ran to the wreckage and tried to pull them out. Keketso was still moving at the time. The rain and debris were too much and I called for help when I realised I couldn’t do it alone,” said Nsibande, before burying her head in her hands and weeping. Keketso’s father, Moses Matseletsele, who received the news of his daughter’s death four hours later, was in shock.
At Puntan’s Hill, three-month-old Philasande Mhlongo drowned when the shack she was sleeping in filled with rainwater. Philasande was lying on her bed while her father, Qaphelani Mhlongo, was outside, removing sand which had fallen on the shack.
“I went back inside to fetch a spade and discovered my child drowning in the water. I rushed her to hospital, but she had already died,” he said on Monday.
At Umlazi’s H Section, Lindiwe Zulu died when a tree and sand fell on her shack while she lay asleep with her partner.
The man, who would not be named, said he awoke to find himself outside the shack.
“I must have been pushed outside (the shack). I was shocked when it happened. I tried to save her, but the sand was too much,” he said. Emergency workers removed Zulu’s body from the wreckage at 3am yesterday.
A weather expert said that the above-normal rainfall was expected to persist and strengthen before dying down in the new year.
The weather phenomenon La Nina is believed to be behind the heavy falls.
“One can extrapolate that to the local floods increasing,” he said.
Gloomy, wet weather was predicted for most of this week.
While the Co-operative Governance Department confirmed five deaths from the heavy rain, the eThekwini municipality reported the figure as 10.
In Durban, there were 19 reports of flooding and destroyed shacks at Quarry Road and Puntan’s Hill. Many traffic lights around the city were also not working yesterday.
At the Durban Country Club, golfers arrived to find the course submerged. The course will be closed for three days to drain the water.
Glen Earle Clinic in Newlands East will also be closed for a few days after a nearby stream burst its banks and flooded the premises.
Patients were advised to use other clinics.
At Newlands West, Lungile Cindi and her family spent yesterday mopping up water and rearranging furniture in their home. The family’s furniture and two cars were badly damaged in the heavy downpours.
“I woke up at 1.30am and discovered that my entire house was flooded. One car was swept away and was stuck just before the Umgeni River, and the other car toppled over in the yard. Both are badly damaged,” said Cindi.
Swimming from Blue Lagoon to Battery Beach in Durban was restricted until further notice as clean-up operations started yesterday.
Municipal spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said that some UN climate change talks-related beach activities at Blue Lagoon would be delayed by a day.
In the Elandskop area, outside Pietermaritzburg, one house was flattened in heavy rain on Sunday afternoon and two others were damaged.
Ward councillor Mbusiswa Mkhize said he was trying to get the Red Cross to help the affected families.
They had been provided with tents in the interim.
In Copesville, Pietermaritzburg, a house was flooded when storm water drains overflowed.