South Africa officially declared a state of national disaster on Sunday in response to the deadly and destructive floods that have been hitting the country and neighbouring Mozambique since December.

Heavy rains and storms that have been hitting these two southern African countries for several weeks have left 30 dead in the South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga (northeast), and at least eight in Mozambique.

"I am classifying the disaster as a national disaster," Elias Sithole, head of the South African Disaster Management Centre, said in a statement on Sunday.

Authorities are still searching for survivors and trying to recover bodies, as floods have begun to recede in some areas, including the famous Kruger National Park, which has been forced to close its doors since Thursday and where visits will be able to resume "as early as tomorrow", according to an announcement from the national parks service on social media.

However, he urges visitors to "exercise caution".

In several regions of Mozambique, rivers have burst their banks, engulfing entire neighborhoods and forcing thousands of people to flee.

Chauna Macuacua, a resident of Gaza province, north of Maputo, told AFP that her sister-in-law gave birth on a rooftop where her family had been waiting to be rescued since Thursday.

"We have been here for four days. My nephew was born yesterday around 11 p.m. and we still have not received any help for the mother and baby," she testified.

South Africa also dispatched rescue teams to southern Mozambique on Sunday after a car carrying five members of a South African delegation was swept away by floodwaters in Chokwe, 200 kilometers north of Maputo.