Farmers in parts of the central Karoo remained snowed in today, after 48 hours of heavy snowfalls.
On their farm Paardekraal, between the towns of Middelburg and Graaff-Reinet, journalist Heather Dugmore and husband Mark Cook were out in the veld this morning trying to find three calves among their herd of cattle – hoping they had survived the snow and the bitterly-cold conditions.
“One of the calves is just one day old, so we’re really hoping it has survived,” Dugmore said.
In the past day, farmers were helping neighbours pull vehicles out of thick snow, or out of roadside ditches they had slid into in the treacherous road conditions.
Meanwhile, the N3 highway between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal was reportedly closed across the Free State due to icy weather this morning.
Trucks had jack-knifed in places as a result of the road conditions, and the reopening of the highway would be weather-dependent, the N3 Toll Concession said.
Closer to Cape Town, Beaufort West was dusted by snow which fell yesterday morning, but it melted overnight.
Liesel Lund from the provincial tourism organisation, Cape Town Routes Unlimited, said the N1, heading towards Three Sisters, had been reopened, but motorists had been warned that “numerous” roads were closed further east into the central Karoo.
There was snow on mountains between Franschhoek and the Theewaterskloof dam, as well as on the Matroosberg mountains above Ceres.
In Cape Town, the past three days of a black south-easter finally abated today, after rattling the city since Saturday.
The extremely cold weather was expected to continue across much of the country until tomorrow, said WeatherSA. - Cape Argus
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