EC flooding: Death toll rises to 90

CAPE TOWN - The death toll from last week's devastating floods in the Eastern Cape has risen to 90.

The Department of Water and Sanitation confirmed that the Mthatha Dam, which has no sluice gates, overflowed and automatically released water once it reached capacity.

Spokesperson for the Eastern Cape office of the Premier, Khuselwa Rantjie, said that psychosocial support was being provided to affected families.

"I must say that we reached 90 following two discoveries that were made very late yesterday, and we have had to follow the due processes and release the official stats this afternoon."

Rantjie added that recovery teams would continue searching for all missing people.

"Through the Department of Health being able to conduct the necessary postmortem and 80 bodies have been processed thus far, and they have been positively identified and 77 of those have been released to families."