The South African Weather Service has issued a weather warning for more severe weather in various parts of the country. Gauteng and other provinces were already devastated by severe flooding in recent weeks.
The weather service also predicted more showers and thundershowers today, with an 80% chance of showers and thundershowers in Gauteng.
Heavy rains have also lashed parts of Kwazulu Natal, and motorists have been warned to exercise caution as many roads have become waterlogged as a result of overnight rains.
Severe thunderstorms and disruptive rains are forecast along the coast in KwaZulu-Natal overnight. Areas that might be affected are the eThekwini, Ilembe and Ugu municipalities. Weather forecaster Ayanda Nsele says the heavy rains are expected to ease from Tuesday afternoon.
“We are expecting the rain to improve from tomorrow afternoon to about 30 % over the most part of the province…and in the west and improve on Wednesday and Thursday where we are mostly expecting isolated showers and thundershowers across the province,” says Nsele.
There is also an orange level five rain warning for Gauteng, the central and western Free State, and the Western Cape.
Rescue efforts have been made in Florida Lake, Soweto, and Eldorado Park, and an off-duty police officer has been swept away.
Forecaster at the South African Weather Service, Tokelo Chiloane has more:
Outages caused by incessant rains
Meanwhile, City Power has provided generators to areas that have experienced outages due to last week’s incessant rains. The heavy rains caused flooding in parts of Soweto and Lenasia in the south of Johannesburg.
Officials say the damage to infrastructure is very huge and runs into millions of rands. Over 4 000 calls were logged with the city’s call centre as a result of the heavy rains last week.
Technicians were dispatched to connect generator cables in Lenasia. One of the areas hardest hit by the floods.
Others include Roodepoort, Hursthill and Northcliff.
Residents are frustrated. Resident Zarna Motala says, “The house is inhabitable and there is nothing they can do as not the people have insurance.”
Resident Mohammed Sally says he does not know where to start and that one of his insurances gives him a runaround and the other is trying to help.
But flooding is blamed on the poorly serviced infrastructure.
Ward Councillor Nokuthula Nofemela says, “Talking about challenges with the storm drainage system.”
Earlier, City Power officials indicated that residents may experience a delay in response times and repairs due to the scale of damage. Some of the infrastructures have been flooded and some washed away.
City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena stresses on “service calls received since the floods and the damages could cause millions of rand.”
Mangena says their problems have been compounded by load-shedding. However, they’ve recalled all their teams to return to duty. -Additional reporting by Molemo Mothoa
