Tears fall as memorial erected for 10 schoolchildren who died in deadly flood

There were cries of grief at the unveiling of a memorial stone at Jumba Senior Secondary School outside Mthatha on Wednesday to commemorate 10 pupils who lost their lives in devastating floods which swept through the community on June 10 2025. The ceremony was the centrepiece of a formal handover of renovated facilities to the school which was severely damaged in the floods. Ten pupils from the school were travelling in a minibus that was caught in raging floodwaters, washing the vehicle away.

Three children were left clinging to trees for hours after their friends disappeared downstream. The tragedy formed part of a disaster that claimed 103 lives across the district, including 32 schoolchildren in the Eastern Cape. The memorial stone bears the names of the pupils who died in the tragedy.

It becomes a permanent reminder of the pupils who never returned home, even as the school stands rebuilt with upgraded classrooms, workshops and learning spaces made possible through the support of partners including Gift of the Givers, Cell C and Shell SA. Milani Mdlalo, 17, a grade 11 pupil and one of the three survivors, who spent six hours above the turgid waters, said she was still grief-stricken. “I’m not happy because thinking of that day makes me relive it.

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I lost my friend during the tragedy. “It’s not something you just forget overnight, and emotionally I’m drained. I am still living with the trauma but I’m taking it one day at a time.” Survivor Sixolise Mbelebele, 20, who is in grade 10, said he did not have the words to describe what he went through, but said he was not OK emotionally. After a parent broke down during the unveiling ceremony, education MEC Fundile Gade acknowledged the emotional wounds left by the floods remained far from healed, and he pledged renewed psycho-social support for families and survivors.

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