Two girls aged between four and six were still missing in the Eastern Cape on Sunday night.
The 4×4 vehicle in which they were passengers was swept away by floodwaters as it negotiated a low-level bridge on the access road to the Tiffendell ski-resort near Rhodes on Sunday.
Staff from the resort were able to confirm that four other people, two adults and two children, were saved. All of them were in a state of shock.
Names have not been released yet, but it is believed the owner of the vehicle is from Pretoria.
The adults were the parents of three children. The fourth child was a friend. The group was apparently en route home from the resort when the tragedy occurred.
A police search and rescue team, comprising two police sniffer dogs and their handlers, two police divers and two divers from the East London fire department, left the city after dark on Sunday heading for Barkly East from where they would be ferried to the scene by helicopter on Monday morning.
Tiffendell staffer Mark Shaw said he and a colleague, Johan Smit, were reconnoitring the road on Sunday afternoon.
They had established that it was safe to ford a few of the causeways.
At one point they arrived at a bridge where the water was quite obviously flowing very strongly. A group arrived and was warned not to attempt a crossing.
”The driver must have thought he could make it,” Shaw said, adding that the strength of the current simply turned the Isuzu Trooper 4×4 and swept it away.
Both Shaw and Smit immediately went to the assistance of the terrified people.
The adults and two children were brought onto the riverbank.
Shaw ran downstream for about 300m where he again took to the water to rescue a boy, ”probably between five and nine years old,” who was clinging onto the branches of a tree. There was no sign of the vehicle.
Inspector Steve Leslie also confirmed that two children had been washed away and were missing in the Tina River, between Umtata and Mount Frere. No other details were available.
Leslie said five bodies of flood victims in the East London area had been recovered. Thirteen others were still missing. At least 2 000 people remain homeless. – Sapa