Rehana Rossouw
WHILE the rest of South Africa shivered in sympathy with Kwazulu-Natal as it l ay buried in snow, most farmers there were revelling in the icy weather.
The province’s agricultural union was surprisingly upbeat on Wednesday. “It’s been a long time since we had good winter rains, and it will definitely have g ood spin-offs for summer planting,” said director Steve Shone.
“I’ve just spoken to farmers in East Griqualand and they are overjoyed by the winter rain. We haven’t yet started to count the costs of either the losses or the advantages of the bad weather, but the impression we have right now is th
at the advantages of the rain and snow outweigh the disadvantages.”
Municipalities in rural towns report that livestock had frozen to death and da iry farmers cut off by snow had to dump milk which had gone sour.
But while industry sources said it was far too early to attach a rand value to the snow chaos, it appears that it was far from a disaster.
“Reports we have so far indicate that stock losses were not that bad and the s now and rain were actually good for the maize, sugar and timber industries,” s aid John Bright, director of the Kwazulu-Natal branch of the South African Cha mber of Business.
He said the transport sector was most affected by the weather. The delivery of goods came to a virtual standstill.
The snow will cost the province dearly, though. Municipal and rescue workers w ere stretched to the limit to provide services and succour to snowbound rural towns. Ladysmith municipality’s protection services chief Koos Breedt said the y had to call in all their staff to cope with the crisis.
He said Ladysmith would approach the provincial government to recoup some of t he costs they sustained.
Although municipal officials had gone far beyond the call of duty to assist st randed travellers, some were not appreciative of their efforts, he added.
The Natal Parks Board, the Mountain Club of South Africa and the South African Airforce were still rescuing holidaymakers and mountaineers trapped on the Dr
akensberg.
Eight airforce helicopters were used in rescue operations. By Wednesday 81 peo ple had been airlifted to safety and four hikers were still missing.