Johannesburg - “People of Joburg. Let’s be clear; this is not even close to cold,” ex- Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson tweeted, causing a stir on the social media site.
Some Joburg residents responded to the car enthusiast, who is in the country for the Clarkson, Hammond & May Live motor show, by saying he is “crazy” and telling “lies”, while others simply fired return salvos.
“ @JeremyClarkson To be fair Jeremy, when South Africans visit UK in summer and Brits complain it’s hot, it’s not,” tweeted @Motorscribe.
@momaake tweeted: “Our tropical bodies are not used to this,” while @joe_masin said: “Yes, dear, but we’re a 3rd world country, we don’t want 1st world weather.”
Another tweet by @savagemyers went: “@JeremyClarkson, it’s not cold, it’s dam freezing!!!!”, while @MattBlackZA said “@jeremyclarkson, Well today no. You should have been here last week,” with reference to the cold front that descended on Gauteng from last week Thursday, lasting through the weekend.
WARMER DAYS AHEAD
Despite the wet and chilly weather and the stage 2 Eskom load shedding that most Joburg residents woke up to this morning, the South African Weather Service said the weather was expected to warm up this weekend.
SA Weather Service forecaster Vanetia Phakula said: “In terms of this weekend, no rain is expected and temperatures are expected to improve by a degree or two.
“Temperatures are expected to rise to about 20ºC tomorrow and 21ºC on Sunday,” she said.
She said a cold front would hit Joburg by Wednesday, cooling temperatures significantly.
“We’re expecting temperatures to go down to about 14ºC by Wednesday,” she said.
Eskom moved to implement stage 2 planned power outages at 8.20 on Friday morning, and this was likely to last until 10pm.
“This is due to a further shortage of generating capacity and increased electricity demand,” it said.
Eskom implemented stage 1 load shedding at 6am.
“Any unexpected changes on the vulnerable, constrained system could lead to a change in the load-shedding stage at short notice,” the power utility said.
Eskom said load shedding was implemented as a necessary measure to protect the power system.
“And, to ensure that maintenance is carried out in order to guarantee that our supply of electricity can be maintained in the long term,” it said.
With a cold front expected next week, the power utility urged “electricity users to consider energy-efficient ways of keeping warm”.
The Star