Unusually heavy snowfall caused significant disruption to South Africa’s roads on Saturday, and by midday people who had spent the night in their vehicles were still stranded.
The key N3 highway, which links Johannesburg with the east coast city of Durban, was the worst affected, with several sections closed and even diversions impassable, officials said.
Emergency services were trying to reach people in their vehicles, but it was still unclear how many were affected and what condition they were in, Thania Dhoogra, operations manager of the N3 Toll Concession, told broadcaster ENCA.
“The emergency services worked at full speed all night. They tried to reach as many road users as possible,” said Dhoogra.
Blankets and meals have been delivered to some stranded motorists, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government said at midday.
Trucks have been parked on the side of the road since Friday, Simon Zwane, communications officer for the Road Traffic Management Corporation, told AFP. “Buses travelling between provinces have been stuck at petrol stations for about seven hours,” he said.
Driver Muhammad Goolam told Newzroom Afrika that he spent the night with his children in his car outside the town of Harrismith, about 270 kilometers southeast of Johannesburg.
“After 13 hours, the food supplies have run out, I don’t think we can get out of here without help from rescue workers,” he said.
In some areas there was up to two meters of snow, the road safety campaign Arrive Alive said in a post on X.
The South African Border Services Agency said it had closed three border posts with the Kingdom of Lesotho because “current conditions pose a significant risk.”
More snowfall is expected and several parts of the country are under the second-highest orange warning, Luthando Masimini, a meteorologist with the South African Weather Service, told AFP. “It’s an extreme case,” he said.
Away from the danger zones, the rare phenomenon attracted people who were eagerly awaiting the snow. Justin Nadasem Baker and his family drove three hours from Johannesburg to Warden, about 50 kilometers from Harrismith.
“It was a three-hour drive. We are excited. It’s been many, many years since we’ve seen snow,” he told AFP.
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