Johannesburg, March 9 -- Severe weather events in the second half of February claimed 22 lives and caused widespread damage across various parts of KwaZulu-Natal Province in eastern South Africa, a provincial government official said on Saturday.
In a statement, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, a member of the executive council for cooperative governance and traditional affairs in KwaZulu-Natal, welcomed the National Disaster Management Centre's (NDMC) declaration of a National State of Disaster for the province following the "inclement weather events" that afflicted the province from Feb. 16 to 28.
These devastating events caused an estimated 3.1 billion rand (about 170 million U.S. dollars) in damages and resulted in the tragic loss of 22 lives ...