Snow transforms provinces into winter wonderland

It was a winter wonderland for most parts of SA as snow hit various provinces between Friday and Monday morning.

Residents countrywide took to social media to share images and videos of snowfall or flakes making landfall in their communities.

Gauteng, including Johannesburg, was no exception, with delighted residents sharing snaps of a snow flurry in their areas.

The Eastern Cape transport department has warned drivers to approach the province’s mountain passes with extra caution as snowfalls continue to cause havoc in some of the region’s roads.

“Several incidents of vehicles skidding off the road due to snow have been reported. A taxi at the Penhoek Pass [skidded off the road] while a bus has suffered the same fate at the Lootsberg Pass on the N9 between Graaff-Reinet and Middelburg,” the department said on Monday.

South Africans last week were warned to brace for a freezing weekend as the SA Weather Service (SAWS) last week confirmed a cold front over most parts of the country from Friday until Monday.

On Saturday, the SAWS issued another alert for snow, which initially fell in the Western Cape between Friday and Saturday but was expected to “spread eastward across SA over the next few days”.

The service also advised of “cold to very cold temperatures” over most parts of the country over the next few days, with snow on the high-lying areas.

“Further cooling is expected over the western parts of the country tomorrow, spreading to the central and eastern parts during Sunday and Monday, with maximum temperatures expected to stay below 10°C in most places over the interior.

“Snow [that] started falling [on Saturday morning] over the high-lying areas of the Western and Northern Cape is expected to spread to the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape later today, where it could become disruptive in places. Furthermore, snow will spread to the southern Drakensberg tomorrow, with light snowfall possible along the eastern highveld and escarpment of Mpumalanga on Monday.

Very cold conditions were expected over parts of Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, mainly on Monday, but already over southern Gauteng and the southern highveld of Mpumalanga on Sunday.

Light snowfall is possible over the extreme eastern highveld regions and the escarpment of Mpumalanga on Monday, “where maximum temperatures will be below 7°C”.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has issued navigation tips to help make driving easier in the snow, including using fog lights, watching out for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, manoeuvring gently, slowing down and leaving extra distance between you and the driver in front of you.

“Do not drive on the taillights of the vehicle in front,” the JRA cautioned.

The N3 toll concession warned motorists of “extremely cold and icy conditions” along the N3 between Cedara and Heidelberg. 

City Power has provided an update on how the cold weather has affected operations across the city.

Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said: “City Power teams in service delivery centres have so far managed the high demand for electricity very well with fewer outages reported across Johannesburg overnight and on the weekend.

“After the coldest night on Sunday, we opened this morning [Monday] with less than 1,000 outage calls (928), with problematic areas such Roodepoort, Hursthill and Randburg reporting an average of 100 calls each this morning.

“Our teams will continue to be on high alert with more resources directed to problematic areas as adverse temperatures are set to continue in the coming days. We are seeing more calls coming from Bromhof and surrounds, parts of Parktown and the Reuven area. Teams are attending to those,” Mangena said.

Eskom reassured residents the plummeting temperatures were “unlikely” to affect the severity of load-shedding.

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