Residents of Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal, have described the terror they felt as a tornado tore through the area on Monday, leaving death and destruction in its wake.
Everyone remembers "that sound" when a tornado slammed into Tongaat somewhere around 4.30pm on Monday, 3 June.
It was a terrifying, screeching, overwhelming sound.
Some residents described it as akin to a jet plane about to crash. Others likened it to a rumbling goods train about to plough into their homes.
Patience Denge called it a "snake".
Though the sun had not set, Denge remembers that the sky was almost black. The rain was belting down, then it turned to ice.
"That thing was very dark... It looked like there was a fire inside it and it was moving like a snake.
"Now I have nothing. Never mind my house. My ID document is gone. My daughter's school books are gone. Our clothes are gone. Everything... It's just gone - even the rafters from my roof," Denge told Daily Maverick on Tuesday as she sat outside the shattered remains of her home in Magwaveni township in Tongaat, trying to figure out her next move.
Just up the road, fellow resident Linda Mfeka was sitting in his lounge when the tornado struck. He was unable to run for safety since his right leg had been amputated a few years back due...
