JOHANNESBURG — South Africa has formally declared a national disaster after weeks of severe weather and flooding left at least 30 people dead, damaged infrastructure and displaced communities, with the worst impacts concentrated in the northern provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
The declaration was made by the National Disaster Management Centre and announced by government, enabling the national authorities to coordinate response efforts and support provincial and municipal interventions. The Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs said the extreme weather has also affected other provinces beyond Limpopo and Mpumalanga, including KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West, as emergency services continue assessments.
The flooding forms part of a wider regional crisis. Heavy rains since mid-December have hit southern Mozambique and parts of Zimbabwe as well, pushing the combined death toll across the three countries to more than 100 since late 2025, according to regional reporting and humanitarian updates.
In South Africa, the floods forced the temporary closure of sections of Kruger National Park, one of the world’s largest game reserves. Authorities evacuated hundreds of tourists and staff from affected camps as rivers burst their banks and washed away roads and bridges. SANParks has since begun lifting day-visitor restrictions in some areas as conditions improve, while warning that the northern part of the park remains inaccessible due to damaged infrastructure. (Kruger covers nearly 2 million hectares, according to SANParks, contradicting some early reports that understated its size.)
Limpopo’s premier said the province alone has suffered roughly $240 million in damage, with homes and buildings washed away in some communities.
Search-and-rescue operations remained active over the weekend. Authorities said teams were still looking for four missing people, including five-year-old Siyanda Baloyi, believed to have been swept away when flooding hit his home in Limpopo. A separate incident involved a government official from Ekurhuleni municipality east of Johannesburg reported missing after a vehicle was swept away during travel in flood-affected areas.
Officials have pointed to recurring extreme-weather disasters in recent years—including major fatal floods in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal—as evidence of growing vulnerability and the need for stronger preparedness, early warning, and resilient infrastructure investment.
