A ninth person was found dead after being swept into a river during an electric storm that battered parts of KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend, social development officials said on Monday.
The man was found lying on a river bank in the Inchanga area, on the outskirts of Durban, on Sunday night.
The provincial minister of social development, Meshack Radebe, visited families in the area on Monday morning and was to address the community.
A spokesperson for the department, who did not want to be named, said: ”The community is in shock and Radebe is speaking to them.
”A lot of lives have been affected and these deaths are senseless.”
Police spokesperson Superintendent Henry Budhram was unable to confirm the death.
Radebe told the South African Press Association on Sunday that another eight lives were claimed during the storm.
Among them was a family of four who were struck by lightning inside their Ndwedwe home.
Another person was killed in KwaKhulusi while a sixth person was killed in Dalton, and another life was claimed in Vryheid.
In Pietermaritzburg, a man who had apparently been walking home in the storm on Saturday night accidentally fell into a manhole and died.
Officials were unable to provide a figure on how many were injured.
The freak storm was described by residents and officials as one of the worst they had seen.
Trees were uprooted, roofs caved in, walls and houses collapsed, and in some areas water mains had burst. — Sapa