A woman and a rescue worker drowned after a minibus taxi was trapped in floodwater in Frischgewaagd village in Mpumalanga on Saturday. Photo: Facebook (Dolly Mthweni)
The welcome rains that have been experienced over several parts of the country over the weekend are expected to persist for the better part of this week, the South African Weather Service said yesterday.
Forecaster Venetia Phakula said rain this week will not be as heavy as it has been in recent days. “Residents can expect partly cloudy conditions for the week with daytime temperatures expected to be between the cool and warm categories,” Phakula said.
Flash floods were also reported in Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga, on Saturday and several people lost their lives. Other provinces which experienced heavy rainfall over the weekend include North West and KwaZulu-Natal.
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Phakula said daytime temperatures were only expected to slowly start recovering from today.
Maximums in Gauteng ranged between 20ºC and 23ºC this past weekend.
This past weekend’s heavy downpours had been the first since the start of the rainy season following months of dry and hot conditions.
The present summer season has mainly been marred by freaky weather conditions which included severe thunderstorms and tornadoes which ripped through places such as Ennerdale in the south of Johannesburg, as well as Zeerust in the North West.
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