A severe cold front impacting South Africa since the weekend has brought heavy snowfall, resulting in road closures, widespread power outages, and at least one fatal road accident, officials confirmed.
According to Unathi Binqose, spokesperson for the Eastern Cape transport department, five people died in a road accident on the N2 highway due to the adverse weather conditions.
The South African Weather Service had issued warnings late last week, forecasting a significant drop in temperatures, disruptive rain, damaging winds, and snow across eastern regions.
Snow has been reported since Monday in provinces including Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Free State, leading to closures along parts of the N2 highway, a key link between these provinces.
Power utility Eskom announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it was experiencing “a high number of customer calls nationally due to widespread power outages caused by inclement weather,” assuring that additional resources were being deployed to resolve the issues quickly.
South Africa typically experiences snowfall during its winter months from June to August, with temperatures frequently dropping below freezing. The weather service anticipates the cold front will persist through midweek.
