Disaster declared as Kruger National Park among flooded regions

Heavy rain and flooding in tourism areas including the Kruger National Park has seen the South African Government declare a state of disaster.

The response came after ongoing catastrophic weather has ravaged multiple provinces mainly in the north of the country since late December 2025, local media reported. 

The declaration came after weeks of torrential rain, lightning, and damaging winds that have devastated Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and the North West.

It was confirmed in a statement by Dr Elias Sithole, head of the National Disaster Management Centre,

IOL online reported. 

"I regard this occurrence as a disaster and, in terms of Section 23(1)(b) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002. I classify the disaster as a national disaster," Sithole said. 

He noted that the severe weather has "resulted in the loss of life, damage to property, infrastructure and the environment, as well as the disruption of basic services."

Sithole has called upon all organs of state to "further strengthen their support to the disaster management structures" and to ensure that contingency plans are fully activated to deal with the ongoing effects of the floods.

The worst impact is in the northern provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, where the fatalities occurred, as well as in parts of neighbouring Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 

Tourism drawcard the Kruger National Park was closed and Hoedspruit, the airport that serves the wildlife zone, shut down. 

The park is one the biggest game reserves in the world. 

Image: Kruger National Park, Winsor Dobbin   

Rabies a real risk for visitors to Bali

Tourists visiting Bali have been given a new warning about the dangers of catching rabies from stray dogs on the resort island.

There have already been four deaths reported this year from victims of dog bites.

As the government and NGOs work year-round to vaccinate stray, community-owned, and pet dogs, rabies is still prevalent on the island, the Bali Sun reported.

The head of the Health Office, Gianyar Ni Nyoman Ariyuni, said a puppy had been rescued from Sayan Village, just outside of Ubud. It bit a 46-year-old woman who was given the rabies vaccine (VAR).

The puppy later died and a post-mortem confirmed it had rabies.

“Foreigners who are bitten are routinely scheduled to be given VAR three times,” the official said.

There has been talk of culling stray dogs, which are found all over Bali.

The World Health Organisation explains that eliminating or culling a stray or free-roaming dog population does not reduce the risk of rabies and advises mass vaccination as the most impactful and cost-effective method of transmission prevention.

In the year to date there have been four confirmed human rabies deaths in Bali.

Death is in the air: a deadly time

It has been a deadly time for flyers with two deaths on board commercial aircraft over the past few days.

A British Airways flight attendant collapsed and died in front of seated passengers just prior to take off at London Heathrow, Travel Mole reported.

The 52-year-old man was preparing for departure on a flight scheduled to fly to Hong Kong.

The captain called for medical assistance, and a passenger helped with CPR. Emergency services personnel attended the scene but the man could not be saved.

“Sadly, despite the best efforts of our crews, a patient was pronounced dead at the scene,’ London Ambulance Service said.

The early evening incident caused the flight to be delayed overnight.

Passengers were accommodated in local hotels and departed the following day.

A BA spokesperson said: ‘Our thoughts are with our colleagues’ friends and family at this incredibly sad time."

Just a week earlier a BA flight attendant was found dead in a layover hotel room in the US prior to a flight from Newark to London Heathrow.

A passenger was, meanwhile, discovered dead in a toilet cubicle on a Jet2 flight from Tenerife in Spain bound for Manchester.

Cabin crew found the man dead after other passengers became concerned at the length of time the toilet was occupied.

The flight was then diverted to Cork in Ireland.

A Jet2 spokesperson said: “Flight LS918 from Tenerife to Manchester diverted to Cork Airport due to a customer requiring medical attention.

“Regrettably, we can confirm that the customer sadly passed away. This was an extremely difficult situation for our crew. Our thoughts are with the customer’s family and friends.”

Image: Tiago Gomes, Scop.io 

They shoot horses don't they? Yes, all the time

It is the peak of the horse racing season in Australia with the Melbourne Cup just around the corner.

Which means huge crowds, big money for bookmakers, a massive boost for tourism and, usually, several horses being pushed beyond their limits and dying.

The 2023-24 season in Australian began on August 1 - and in the very first week of the new 'racing year' 10 horses were killed due to injuries sustained on Australian racetracks.

That following a record year of racehorse death in Australia in 2022-23 - with 168 horses dying at race tracks around the nation.

The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) published its Deathwatch 2023 Report this week, which reflected the grimmest toll since CPR started recording race-day deaths in 2014.

The record number was a 20% increase in racehorse deaths from the previous year and represented a horse being killed on an Australian racetrack every two days from August 1, 2022 to July 31 this year.

CPR campaign director Elio Celotto says this season is on track to be even worse than its predecessor.

“It is simply not good enough for the racing industry to be putting out propaganda videos about how much they care about their horses when they are turning a blind eye to all the horses killed on the track,” Celotto says.

"We’re seeing the racing industry do what it always does when it tries to regain the confidence of the public. It spends more and more money on the marketing machine instead of doing the real work of caring about its horses.”

CPR has been researching and publishing a record of deaths caused by racing-related injuries because the racing industry does not collate and publish the horrific data, he says.

CPR monitors every race in Australia to keep an annual count of the gruesome stats.

It says 51 of the 168 horses killed by racing last season died past the winning post, meaning many were suffering injuries while being beaten and pushed beyond their limits to the finish line.

New South Wales has the most blood on its hands of any state with 53 deaths, followed by Queensland with 40 and Victoria with 39.

The report revealed Racing Victoria was the biggest culprit of not reporting the cause of death of a horse - failing to do so on 16 separate occasions.

"Efforts to hide deaths are greater than ever,” Celotto says. “When the racing industry chooses to ignore calls for transparency, it means it has much to hide.”

And he says deaths are actually higher than reported.

“Many sustain injuries and are taken off the racetrack and later euthanised. This way their deaths don’t have to appear in stewards’ reports. The industry records them as ‘retired’ and wipes their hands of them.

“If the racing industry was serious about animal welfare, it would offer complete transparency about the retirement of all its horses.

“As the nation prepares to get into party mode for the Melbourne Cup, people need to know they are actually ‘celebrating’ the maiming and murder of a magnificent, highly intelligent and sensitive animal on an industrial scale.

“I’m sure the Champagne wouldn’t taste so sweet if people were aware of how cruel and bloodthirsty the sport is.”

Worth bearing in mind.

  

Image: Abdullah Minhas, Scop.io