Heavy snowfall on the escarpment in the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape, as well as in Lesotho, caused road closures and left people stranded on farms. Heavy downpours in the southern Cape and in the coastal region of the Eastern Cape, meanwhile, filled dams and washed away roads.
Cape of snow
Heavy snowfalls in the Central Karoo in the Western Cape trapped farmers, farm workers and livestock on 10 farms along the Nuweveld mountains, close to Beaufort West. According to a representative of the local farmers’ association, emergency supplies had to be airlifted to the farms. “The snowfall was about 1m deep on some of the farms, and two days after the snow stopped falling, farmers were still unable to leave their farms,” said Dian Gouws of Agri Central Karoo.
Once the needs of the farmers and their workers were taken care of, feed for the livestock was brought in. According to Gouws there were about 170 people, including seven babies, trapped on the farms. Meanwhile farmers in other parts of the Western Cape have welcomed the icy temperatures and generous rainfall with open arms. According to Agri Wes-Cape, some farmers in the Boland region received up to 70mm of rain over the weekend, while farmers in the Breede River Valley received about 30mm.
Along the Garden Route, heavy downpours caused limited damage to some vegetable crops. Stefan Gericke, chairperson of the George agricultural association, said farmers in the region measured between 120mm and 160mm of rain. This could affect the planting schedule of some, but no major losses due to flooding was expected.
Eastern Cape
According to Barkly East farmer Lizbe van Zyl, who was in Lesotho over the weekend, snow began to fall in the region on Friday, bringing wind chill temperatures as low as -18°C on the night of 14 July. By Monday, 16 July about 30 cars were still bogged down on Moteng Pass in central Lesotho, where the snow was 2m deep in some places.
In the Barkly East area, the snowfall seems to have been less severe, despite the Barkly Pass having been closed for a time. “I haven’t heard of any livestock losses,” said local farmer Jannie Roets. “There was about 5cm of snow around my house on Sunday morning, but higher in the mountains there was, of course, more.” According to Lady Grey farmer Wimpie Mostert, he awoke to ankle deep snow around his home on Sunday morning, but he’d also not heard of any livestock losses. However, he added that he had not yet been able to reach his cattle.
Assistance
In the Wapadsberg pass between Cradock and Graaff-Reinet, police and emergency workers had to assist several motorists after their vehicles became stuck. The pass was still closed to traffic on Tuesday, while the Lootsberg Pass between Graaff-Reinet and Middelburg was opened on Tuesday morning (17 July). The roads between St Francis and Humansdorp, and the R330 between Hankey and Weston to Humansdorp were also still closed to traffic at the time of going to print.
Maize blown over
Maize on the farm of Kokstad egg producer Greg Braithwaite was flattened by cold, high winds on the weekend of 14 and 15 July. “The winds were vicious,” he said. “Quite a lot of damage was done. The roofs of sheds and labour housing were blown off.’’ They had 20ha of maize left to combine but that was flattened by the winds.
“We were looking at quite high yields of 9,5t/ha rainfed. We’ll put the combine in this morning (16 July) and after that will use labour to pick it up. It’s vital to get all the maize.” The maize is used as chicken feed for layers, which produce eggs under the EG Farm Fresh Eggs brand. Braithwaite said there was a brush of snow on top of the mountains and they’d received about 10mm of rain.
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