People gather as rescue and search operations are underway after a massive flash flood in Nuwakot, Nepal, on Aug. 27, 2026. Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Authority said that as many as 359 bodies had been recovered from flood-hit areas by Thursday evening, with 910 people still missing.
Image: Xinhua via IANS
South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal, says authorities are working with their counterparts in Nepal to establish the whereabouts of six South Africans reported missing after devastating flash floods and mudslides near the Nepal-Tibet border.
South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal
Image: Leon Lestrade/ Independent Newspapers
Sooklal said South African authorities were in daily contact with an honorary consul in Nepal as efforts continued to obtain information about the missing citizens.
“Our Honorary Consul in Nepal is assisting us in trying to get information on the South Africans. We are in daily contact with him as well as the Nepalese High Commission in New Delhi,” said Sooklal.
“We were provided with the names of six SA citizens that were in Nepal. We continue to try and get information on them.”
The missing South Africans include four residents of Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal and a woman from East London, while another missing person has been identified as being from Isipingo Beach.
The Ladysmith residents have been identified as Surendranath Maharaj, 74, and his wife, Anitha Devi Maharaj, 67, as well as Vivaganathan Pillay, 66, and his wife, Janet Pillay, 56.
The Maharajs were travelling along the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage route near Gyirong, close to the Nepal-Tibet border, when the flash floods and mudslides struck on Wednesday.
The other missing South Africans have been identified as Bavika Ramjee of East London and Terricia Govender, 33, of Isipingo Beach.
They are believed to have gone missing after an immigration office on the Tibet-Nepal border was washed away by the flash floods.
The families of the missing South Africans have appealed to anyone with information about their relatives’ whereabouts to come forward.
