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JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (AFP) - The death toll in South Africa's severe winter storms reached 22 on Monday as the government declared five towns disaster areas and a new cold front approached the country.

Police found the bodies of two shepherds in the mountains near Lady Frere in the Eastern Cape province Sunday, while another man died of exposure in a township at Elliot, in the same area, said Captain John Fobian, the provincial disaster management spokesman.

"We are continuing to comb the area by air, by road and on foot to look for more people trapped by the cold," he told Nampa-AFP.

At least 22 people have died in weather-related incidents since last week, including nine people who drowned Thursday when a pick-up truck washed off a low-water bridge at Idutywa, in the Eastern Cape.

On Monday, the South African government declared five Eastern Cape towns disaster areas.

Bad weather has also forced two ships aground off the South African coast.

Hundreds of South Africans, unaccustomed to heavy snowfalls, were trapped over the weekend as towns were snowed in and cars and buses became stuck in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in some of the worst weather in decades.

"This has been the worst snowfalls since 1964, and before that 1931," Fobian said.

At least two towns in the province, Elliot and Cala, which had been cut off from the outside world since Wednesday last week, were accessible by road again on Monday.

Fobian said 10 tonnes of emergency supplies, including bread, paraffin and candles, were being taken to the towns, and local municipalities have made available their town halls for those left homeless by the storms.

"There are, however, some rural areas which we have not yet reached," he said.

At Tiffendell, South Africa's only ski resort near the small town of Rhodes some 650 kilometres (400 miles) south of Johannesburg, about 150 people remained trapped, Fobian said.

In KwaZulu-Natal, an air force Oryx (Puma) helicopter rescued 31 holidaymakers on Monday, trapped at the top of Sani Pass, in the province's eastern Drakensberg Mountain range since last Thursday.

Weather conditions improved Monday, helping rescue workers in their efforts, but South Africa's Weather Service predicted another cold front would hit the country by Thursday.

"Its a race against time to get aid to everybody before the next front," Fobian said. - Nampa-AFP

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