‘Catastrophic’ Durban floods leave trail of death and destruction

Residents salvage the remains of what used to be the United Methodist Church of South Africa in Clermont, near Durban, on April 13, 2022, following heavy rains that killed four children in the area [File: Phill Magakoe/AFP]

Johannesburg, South Africa – At 8pm on Monday, Mthobisi Gasa struggled to cross a bridge that had been submerged in water to go to his home in Inanda, on the outskirts of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province.

The 24-year-old retail trainee trekked through waist-high water for more than an hour by forming a human chain with strangers heading in the same direction to avoid drowning. He was devastated when he finally reached his two-bedroom home.