Gift of the Givers join Eastern Cape search and recovery efforts
Their teams have joined SAPS members, health officials, and other emergency services in what has now become a large-scale mop-up mission.
Eastern Cape residents in Mthatha left destitute following flooding in Mthatha on 11 June 2025. Picture: Jacques Nelles/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - Gift of the Givers has joined search and recovery efforts in the Eastern Cape, where flash floods have left a trail of destruction and claimed at least 86 lives.
The humanitarian organisation is now focusing its operations on the outskirts of Mthatha, expanding beyond the Mthatha dam area, which has been the primary recovery site over the past few days.
READ: EC floods death toll would be worse if not for rescue teams’ response - Ramaphosa
Their teams have joined SAPS members, health officials, and other emergency services in what has now become a large-scale mop-up mission.
Gift of the Givers said that they would remain in the area for the next few days as the search continued for those lost in the recent torrential rains and flash floods.
Earlier this week, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Velenkosini Hlabisa declared the Eastern Cape floods, along with severe weather in the Western Cape, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal, a national disaster.
The extreme weather has claimed 86 lives while destroying homes and infrastructure across the region.
Gift of the Givers’ head of operations, Ahmed Bahm, said: "When you find bodies in the water, you can see the bodies, but as the days go by, as the bodies decompose, they will swell up and come up in the water and float.”
Many residents in Mthatha are now sifting through what’s left of their homes, trying to salvage belongings as the floodwaters continue to recede.