Efforts intensify to locate six South Africans missing in Nepal

Gift of the Givers and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation say they have been working tirelessly to try to get the exact last-known location of the six South Africans reported missing after devastating floods in Nepal.

Gift of the Givers’ Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, who has been heading the search, says there’s still no confirmation of their whereabouts.

He says it’s been difficult to reach the disaster area, with landslides, mudslides and damaged communication networks delaying search and rescue efforts.

He says the organisation remains in constant contact with the families, as authorities and volunteers continue searching for the missing tourists.

Sooliman says, “Nobody has been able to reach those areas, and the problem is, we are not sure exactly which side they were.

The stories were changing.

On the one side, the family said, initially, they were told by the two operators that they were on the Nepal side and then afterwards, somebody mentioned they were on the Tibet side, and they crossed Tibet more than 15 minutes before the floods came.

How far away they were from the floods, we don’t know that.” Video | An update from Gift of the Givers’ Dr Imtiaz Sooliman: