The vicious storm that pounded greater Durban since Monday night has claimed at least two dozen lives and and left 32 people injured.

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube told journalists on Tuesday that massive damage had been "inflicted on public and private infrastructure".

Cogta said at about 10am that at least 23 people had died in the flooding - but paramedics told TimesLIVE that three additional bodies had been recovered from a collapsed house in the Queensburgh area, bringing the total number of dead to at least 26.

Dube-Ncube said more than 2,000 emergency calls had been logged since Monday night.

"From where we stand, we have reports of collapsed walls, and mud slides as well as roads that have been flooded," she said.

She said parts of KwaZulu-Natal were also experiencing power outages because of the extreme weather.