Heavy rains flood SANDF bases in KZN
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) says some of its bases in parts of KZN were also affected by the devasting floods.
Heavy rainfall over the weekend caused massive damage to infrastructure and left scores of people homeless.
At least 60 people have died and dozens more reported missing.
Durban, Ballito, Umdloti, Clermont, Umzinyathi and Umlazi are among the areas where the biggest carnage has been recorded.
By Wednesday, rescue teams had spent hours on the ground in a rush against the clock.
The army was also deployed to the region.
But SANDF chief Rudzani Maphwanya revealed in a media briefing those efforts had been stalled after some air force bases has also flooded.
"We are going to support KZN, we have already started bringing the aircrafts to the area but another thing we must understand is that floods are not discriminatory," he said.
"We were also affected in these floods such that when the other areas adjacent to the air force base were flooded, the water didn't decide to spare us. The water also got into our areas."
It's understood the SANDF in KZN would rely on neighbouring provinces, including the Eastern Cape, for equipment.
"The very same assets that we wanted to deploy last night, we couldn't because we couldn't just take chances. If the avionics are affected, we would be putting both the lives of pilots and those we want to assist in danger," Maphwanya added.
Maphwanya labelled the floods as a national disaster, even though government hasn't officially classified as such.
ALSO READ:
