By Umamah Bakharia

Mopping-up operations are underway in the Southern Cape, where heavy downpours on Monday resulted in power cuts and water outages, with schools closed and houses and businesses flooded.

George on the Garden Route was the worst affected, with several roads suffering damage.

One of the organisations that immediately sent assistance to assist communities, is Gift of the Givers.

Radio Islam speaks to founder Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman on the situation in George and surrounding areas.

“In the city centre of George, there has been damage to some houses, however, the informal settlements have had the most damage,” says Dr. Sooliman.

Gift of the Givers was given permission to make use of the town’s magistrate hall to provide food in bulk to soup kitchens to feed the affected.

Food parcels were given to those that had the resources to cook but in cases where the affected could not cook, the foundation assisted the soup kitchens to provide food to the needy.

Due to the floods, many animals were affected too with lots of them becoming strays.

An issue that the foundation face is that with unpredictable weather, is that many roofs were damaged from the floods that need to be repaired before conditions worsen.

Gift of the Givers is still on the ground trying to repair for future possible weather change that might occur in the following days.