A blanket of snow that fell in the Harrismith area last night has led to the closure of a long stretch of the N3 highway, between Van Reenens Pass and Villiers.
This left many travellers moving between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng on Monday having to seek accommodation in Harrismith, a halfway spot, overnight.
Most of the town's petrol stations and stores were running on generators as the town was also hit by an electricity cut.
“Nobody must even think of venturing out on the roads,” said Dries van Niekerk, owner of Dries Auto. “Today is a day to stay indoors and drink Gluhwein.”
He said this was the worst snow storm since 1992. Van Niekerk at the time was in the town council's emergency services.
“We had cowboys, out of towners, who decided to drive down the road into the valley during that snow storm. And the next thing, we received a few hours later, was an emergency call to say they were dying.”
He said emergency services with the help of the army were then tasked with the rescue. “You can lose yourself in weather like this. We recorded 3cm of snow last night.”
Surrounding mountains were covered in white, while cattle were seen grazing in a nearby field by a frozen lake. Truckers and other motorists were lined up just before the N3 offramp. “We are stuck here,” one motorist shouted. “I have to get to the highway.”
There was no way of her being able to, as police closely monitored the off ramp, buzzing sirens as one or two drivers tried to sneak by. -Sapa