A delicate rescue operation in the remote Rustenburg Kloof area of North West was still under way late yesterday to save a climber who had fallen down a cliff and become trapped between two boulders.
The climber's name would not be made known until he had been rescued and taken to hospital, said Mountain Club of South Africa spokesman Dean van der Merwe.
He said one of the climber's feet had been crushed in the fall and the terrain where he ended up was "very unstable".
There are fears that any extreme movement to pull the injured climber free could unsettle some of the boulders and lead to a perilous rock fall.
The search started on Friday, but the rescue party was unable to extricate the climber because of the terrain.
Yesterday, the mountain club relieved the original rescue team that had been working nonstop for 24 hours.
The rescue party is arranging for equipment to reach the climber to stabilise the terrain and get the injured man out.