Officials said 13 people had been aboard the vehicle, including 11 pupils. Three children were found alive after clinging to trees. Four other pupils remained missing, and rescuers located the empty minibus on a riverbank. Provincial authorities cautioned that casualty numbers were rising as crews reached affected communities and continued searching waterways.
The unusual winter system combined heavy rain in low-lying areas with snowfall in higher terrain. Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said the province had not experienced that simultaneous pattern at such intensity. The mostly rural region stretches inland from the Indian Ocean into mountain areas, creating difficult conditions for search teams and communities cut off by damaged roads.
Resources were strained. Mabuyane said the province initially had only one helicopter available and appealed for more support. Hundreds of displaced residents spent the night in community centres and improvised shelters while rescue operations continued. Images showed flooded informal settlements and inundated homes. The storm also damaged water and electricity infrastructure.
Schools sustained wide disruption. Authorities counted 58 affected schools across the Eastern Cape districts of OR Tambo, Amathole and Alfred Nzo. In neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal, 68 schools in nine districts were damaged, although no deaths were reported there in the supplied accounts. Major roads in both provinces were closed to reduce the risk of further casualties.
The power impact reached far beyond individual flood sites. Nearly 500,000 homes had lost electricity since Tuesday as rain, snow and gale-force winds crossed the country. State-owned utility Eskom said restoration work was under way. The national weather service warned that severe winter conditions would continue at least through the middle of the week.
President Cyril Ramaphosa offered condolences to bereaved families and urged residents to cooperate with emergency instructions, describing the cold-weather hazards as life-threatening. The National Disaster Management Centre and other services were responding, while local residents also helped identify missing people and alerted neighbours as water rose.
Mabuyane connected the province's growing disaster burden with climate change and global warming, though the supplied evidence did not present a scientific attribution study for this particular storm. What authorities could establish immediately was the convergence of hazards: intense rain drove sudden flooding, snow and cold complicated shelter needs, and damaged power and water systems magnified the consequences. The search for the four missing pupils remained a central focus within a provincial emergency whose final toll was not yet settled.
