President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed sadness over the tragic loss of life during recent floods in Eastern Cape, with the lives of 100 people having been claimed. The floods have caused widespread destruction to homes, government facilities, roads, hospitals, and schools, highlighting the urgent need to tackle climate change.

“We sympathise with you because losing a parent or child is one of the most painful experiences one can endure. I also came here because we are not accustomed to losing so many people all at once. We are very, very disturbed that so many people have passed away, but it could have been much worse. The response teams acted quickly," he said.

“There shouldn’t be any floods during winter. In the Eastern Cape, we expect cold weather and snow during this season. However, the occurrence of floods highlights the severity of the climate change issue we are facing. The same flooding issues are also happening in KwaZulu-Natal.”

He highlighted that this was becoming a new reality for South Africa, with both the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal experiencing recurring annual disasters. 

“The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are now prone to continuous annual disasters that are causing a lot of pain and suffering amongst our people, where a number of people are dying.”

Studies and scientific evidence have pointed to one significant factor contributing to the occurrence of severe flooding: climate change, increased temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts, and floods.

Industrialised nations drove their industrial growth and urbanisation by relying on fossil fuels, which has been the primary cause of climate change, impacting every country worldwide and imposing a disproportionate burden on lower-income countries, particularly Africa.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) 'State of the Climate in Africa 2024' report, Africa bears an increasingly heavy burden as a result of climate change and disproportionately high costs for essential climate adaptation, with extreme weather and climate change impacts hitting every single aspect of socioeconomic development in Africa and exacerbating hunger, insecurity and displacement.

Extreme weather events, once occurring every 10 years in the late nineteenth century, now occur 2.8 times per decade and could increase to 4.1 times per decade if global warming hits 1.5 °C. This poses significant risks to environmental sustainability owing to the interconnectedness of climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, and human societies.

The year 2024, and the past decade, was the warmest on record. Sea-surface temperatures around the continent were at record levels, with particularly rapid warming in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Marine heat waves impacted the biggest area since measurements started in 1993; Africa bears an increasingly heavy burden from climate change and disproportionately high costs for essential climate adaptation.

On average, African countries are losing 2% to 5% of GDP and many are diverting up to 9% of their budgets responding to climate extremes. In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to be between US$30-billion and US$50-billion annually over the next decade, or 2% to 3% of the region’s GDP, says the WMO 'State of the Climate in Africa 2023' report.

In 2015, at the Paris Agreement gathering, developed nations committed to contribute $100-billion annually to support developing nations in addressing climate change. At the COP29 held in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2024, this was increased to $300-billion per year. Up to now developed nations are still yet to fully deliver on the initial $100-billion commitments. Adding insult to injury is that Africa contributes only 4% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions while the richer countries most responsible for this global warming keep on playing politics by shifting goal post on who should fully pay for the catastrophic loss of homes and damage to livelihoods taking place across the continent.

According to the the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of August 2024, several parts of Southern Africa have been affected by the worst mid-season dry spell in over 100 years, marred by the lowest mid-season rainfall in 40 years. This has been exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon. Six countries declared a state of emergency due to El Niño-linked severe drought, including Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

El Niño conditions have also caused heavy rains and flooding in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia. These severe weather shocks have led to the displacement of thousands of people, disease outbreaks, food shortages, water scarcity and significant impacts on agriculture. More than 20-million people are experiencing crisis levels of hunger in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Eswatini, Tanzania, Lesotho and Botswana, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, Vulnerability Assessment Committee and Food and Nutrition Security Working Group reports. 

All this devastation highlights a broader trend of worsening weather patterns fuelled by climate change. Southern Africa is experiencing more and more extreme weather patterns as global temperatures rises. The evidence that South Africa is also facing significant changes in weather patterns is there for everyone to see. These rises in extreme weather conditions are disrupting lives and damaging vital infrastructure of South African society and its economy, especially of the vulnerable populations, the poor communities, women and children. These groups often lack the resources and infrastructure to adapt to the effects of climate change, leading to increased risks to health, livelihoods, and overall well-being.

It is now a reality that every year KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape experience heavy rainfall which leads to flooding and triggers massive landslides that cause loss of life, displaces people, damages homes, roads, bridges, and disrupts schooling. KwaZulu-Natal experienced flooding in July 2016, May 2017, October 2017, March 2019, April 2019, November 2019, November 2020, April 2023, June 2023, January 2024, June 2024, December 2024, February 2025, March 2025 and now June 2025.

In 2022 KwaZulu-Natal was hit hard by the most catastrophic floods, which claimed more than 400 deaths and severely affected 40 000 people, left 45 000 people temporarily unemployed, and destroyed over 12 000 houses and other infrastructure estimated at R17-billion. The floods also led to the shutdown of the Port of Durban for several days.

In February 2025, KwaZulu-Natal was hit hard by heavy floods that claimed at least 22 lives, destroyed homes, roads, bridges and schools, caused about R3.1-billion in damages and led the government to declare state of disaster. Transport Minister Barbara Creecy expressed concern about the impact of climate change on South Africa’s transport infrastructure, warning extreme weather conditionswere causing severe damage that required long-term solutions. “There is a no doubt extreme weather conditions and climate change are wreaking havoc with transport infrastructure.”

KwaZulu-Natal is continuously bearing the brunt of these human-caused climate change events, by paying a disproportionately high cost of rebuilding infrastructure washed away by the floods and relocating displaced communities. Government must act to mitigate these effects.

“What we recognise is transport infrastructure is going to be increasingly hammered by extreme weather events and we need to ensure we are not just repairing roads but taking steps to prevent recurring damage. This is a work in progress," she said.

Every year, families are forced to rebuild their lives after devastating floods, a cycle that is only worsening with climate change. As one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, and to achieve its economic growth and urbanise its youthful population South Africa faces a choice: continue relying on fossil fuels or invest in a clean energy future.

Written by Lazarus Tshwari, Media Analyst at Critical Media