Snow in KZN: True SA spirit shines through

As we were going to press, rescuers were still trying to get to the remaining people stuck in their cars in the snowed-in prison which the N3 highway between Durban and Johannesburg became over the weekend.

It appears the death toll from the severe, freezing weather has, so far, been limited to one person – a woman who was stuck in a taxi for a night and who developed severe hypothermia, such that she could not be revived on the way to hospital.

The crisis was, like many disasters in South Africa, something which showed up the best of us and the worse of us when tragedies strike.

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Ordinary people – from bikers to farmers, to people staying nearby – pitched in to help clear roads, rescue stranded motorists or get vital food and drink to those trapped in cars. Organisations like the Red Cross, Gift of the Givers and the Al-Imdaad Foundation did sterling work in awful conditions, as did rescue and emergency services workers.

When times are tough, South Africans are willing to put our differences behind us and go the extra mile for those in peril.

Which is why it is disgusting that some impatient motorists made the job of road clearing more difficult – and even hampered rescue efforts – by disobeying signs and traffic officials to push through when they thought they saw a gap.

ALSO READ: Snow on N3 leads to one person dying of hypothermia

At the same time, disaster management authorities admitted that, while they were aware of the prediction of snow, they were taken aback by how heavy it was.

Surely that is what you do when planning for disasters – you work for the worst-case scenario?

The disaster also showed the chickens of under-funding the military coming home to roost. Soldiers on the ground and choppers in the air (weather permitting) could have made a massive difference.