KwaZulu-Natal floods: The South African family who lost nine children
South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province is still reeling from the country’s worst floods in 60 years, which killed about 435 people last month. Mass funerals are taking place, although many families are still unable to bury their loved ones because their bodies were swept away by the raging torrents, as the BBC Pumza Fihlani reports. Inside a white tent on a hillside just outside Pietermaritzburg, hundreds of people sit with their heads bowed before six coffins. A sombre church hymn pierces through the heavy silence.
The unimaginable happened to the Mdlalose family. Slindile Mdalose, 43, and nine children aged between two and 10 years were killed in the floods that devastated KwaZulu-Natal in the most deadly natural disaster in the country’s history. They were sleeping when the violent water washed through, flattening their home. It has been three weeks and some of the bodies are yet to be recovered. “To tell you the truth we are mad, we are numb. We can’t use our heads. This is too much to even comprehend,” the children’s uncle, Thokozani Mdlalose tells the BBC.(BBC)…[+]