A brutal cold front has gripped South Africa since the weekend, unleashing widespread snowfall that has triggered road closures, power cuts, and a deadly accident, according to authorities.
In the Eastern Cape, five lives were lost in a crash on the N2 highway, blamed on treacherous driving conditions caused by the wintry storm, Eastern Cape transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose told Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday.
The South African Weather Service had sounded the alarm late last week, warning of a sharp plunge in temperatures alongside disruptive rainfall, powerful winds, and snow blanketing the eastern regions.
While winter snow isn’t unusual in South Africa between June and August, this cold snap has been especially fierce, with temperatures tumbling well below freezing.
Snowfall blanketed parts of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Free State from Monday, prompting the closure of key routes—including sections of the N2 highway that links the storm-hit provinces—according to officials from KwaZulu-Natal’s transport department.
Power utility Eskom said in a post on X that it was “experiencing a high number of customer calls nationally, due to widespread power outages caused by inclement weather.”
“More resources were being secured to ensure prompt resolution to the power outages”, Eskom said.
The weather service predicted that the cold front would continue through the middle of the week.
