Disaster relief in the Eastern Cape was well under way by Saturday morning, after the province was hit this week by flooding, disaster management said.
”We relocated 7 000 people yesterday [Friday] to about 25 community halls in Port Elizabeth and East London,” said Lourens Schoeman, spokesperson for the Nelson Mandela Bay metro municipal council.
A number of animals were also rescued.
He said teams were calculating the cost of damage. Figures would be available by Tuesday. ”Some roads are still closed in the low-lying areas and areas around the Chetty River … electricity still can’t be restored to some areas.”
Water in KwaNobuhle, Uitenhage and Despatch was stagnating. ”Weather conditions are good. The sun is out and it doesn’t look like it will rain.”
The South African Weather Service said light rain could be expected over the Eastern Cape on Saturday.
”Light rain can be expected but nothing that remotely resembles what we had this week,” said Deon van der Mescht for the weather services in the province.
He said the cold front that gripped South Africa in the past week was expected to lift by next weekend, with temperatures normalising to 20 degrees Celsius.
Bloemfontein reported temperatures of minus five degrees Celsius and heavy falls of snow resulted in numerous road closures this week. In Gauteng, light dustings of snow were reported in Sandton, Carletonville and Soweto. The last sighting of snow fall in Gauteng was in 1981. — Sapa