Snow as high as vehicle doors, slippery roads on the mountain passes of KwaZulu-Natal, desperate motorists who went for more than a day without food or water and all this due to freak weather that hampered rescue efforts.
This was the reality yesterday and on Friday when people on the roads of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands found themselves in an icy winter wonderland, transformed by heavy snowfall.
Mother Nature’s wrath unleashed chaos on roads such as the N3, the R74, the R617 and several back routes, where trucks, buses and cars were stuck for hours.
On Friday, Aadil Hassam had to park his car in Van Reenen’s Pass on the N3 highway after snow made the roads too slippery for vehicles to travel safely.
In a telephone interview, he said:
The traffic had to stop because vehicles started sliding. At this stage, we are all sitting in our cars, emergency services can’t reach us, and there is little to no visibility.
During his conversation with this publication, Hassam estimated that about 1 000 vehicles were stranded. According to him, the snow was as high as his vehicle’s door, making the road completely impassable.
While Hassam had no choice but to wait for the traffic to move again, a group of schoolchildren and their teachers fled on foot to better conditions yesterday morning, after being stuck in a bus on the R74 between Harrismith and Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal all night.
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The group of 57 Grade 11 pupils and eight staff members are from the Marais Viljoen High School in Alberton, Gauteng.
Paul Els, the school’s deputy principal, told City Press sister publication Rapport that they left Alberton shortly before noon on Friday for the ATKV’s Drakensville resort at the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains.
“Their last stop was at Villiers, where they had lunch. From there, they drove towards Harrismith, but when they reached the top of the Oliviershoek Pass, the snow started falling,” Els said.
Their bus was caught up in a huge traffic jam between Little Switzerland and Border Post Backpackers. It could not move forward or backwards.
He said:
Fortunately, the buses could idle through the night so the heaters could be turned on and the children had sleeping bags and blankets with them. There were also fruits, water and other food in the trailer that they were taking to the camp.
When it became clear that emergency services could not send tow trucks and recovery vehicles quickly enough to start relieving traffic from the top of the pass, the school governing body began making plans and contacted the owner of the nearby Backpackers lodge. The lodge is about 1.7km from where the bus had stopped.
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Els said all the pupils and staff left the bus around 9am yesterday and walked to the lodge.
They say it was very cold and difficult [to walk], but after an hour, they arrived safely at the lodge. The lodge’s power was still out, but they could get good food and stay warm. They are now sitting snugly together in the little restaurant and the children are calm and in good spirits.
The Alberton group was lucky. For thousands of other people, there was no sign of relief from the snow-covered nightmare they found themselves stuck in.
A Cape Town couple, Nathan and Shereen Pieterse, were on the N3 on Friday afternoon on their way to Pietermaritzburg to attend a wedding when Mother Nature thwarted their plans. The two were stranded without food and water. They also struggled with poor cellphone signals because the cell towers in the area were frozen.
Shereen said their car windows were frozen. They could do nothing but hope that the authorities would eventually come to their aid or find a way for all the affected vehicles to turn around.
Brent Lindeque, also known as the Good Things Guy, shared on social media that he woke up in London in the UK yesterday morning, only to learn that his parents had been stranded near the Van Reenen’s Pass for 12 hours. The pass, on the N3, is located between Ladysmith and Harrismith.
On social media, he wrote:
The snow is a metre deep and they haven’t been able to move at all. There is a snowstorm around them. They have no more food or water. Never in my life did I think I would ask for help on social media because my parents are stuck in a snowstorm in the middle of South Africa. My brother tried to call emergency services but didn’t get much help. I am flying back tomorrow [Sunday] but feel helpless.
By yesterday afternoon, their situation was unchanged. “My whole family is extremely worried,” Lindeque said.
Efforts to help the affected people were hampered by the bad weather. KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial disaster management centre said yesterday afternoon that the SA Weather Service had issued a level eight warning for further heavy snowfall that could be life-threatening.
The warning was specifically aimed at the districts of Ladysmith, Underberg, Kokstad, Impendle, Estcourt, Mooirivier, Okhahlamba and Umgeni.
The extreme weather thwarted the efforts of rescuers and other benefactors to reach and help anxious motorists.
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Ali Sablay, a spokesperson for Gift of the Givers, said the organisation had reached out to the Road Traffic Inspectorate, the N3 Toll Concession, pilots, tow trucks and various people within their network in the affected areas to try to establish a support network.
However, air traffic was suspended because it was still snowing, complicating matters. “The biggest concern is for those who may need urgent help due to medically related conditions,” Sablay said.
“But, currently, no helicopters can fly and tow trucks can’t move.”
The organisation loaded its vehicles with the necessary supplies to provide hot drinks and food to the stranded motorists, their families and truck drivers who needed assistance. “We prepared meals and drinks at a community hall in Estcourt for those passing by,” said Sablay.
Jaaved Khan, one of Gift of the Givers’ emergency relief workers, left yesterday morning with four-wheel drive vehicles full of food and water from Estcourt and Mooirivier towards the Van Reenen’s Pass. The vehicle followed two bulldozers to gain access to the stranded motorists.
“The Van Reenen’s Pass is currently the most affected. We will move in as far as possible and then work our way back to ensure that the people have something to eat and drink. It is snowing again, so the situation is not improving,” said Khan.
By noon yesterday, they had distributed their first load.
“But the weather is terrible and there is no cellphone signal,” he said.
In the Winterton area, farmers with tractors and 4x4s pulled the stranded motorists out of the snow. Guesthouses and other accommodation places were packed with people who had been pulled off the roads before they became impassable by late Friday night.
Emergency helicopters were on standby everywhere, but the cloud cover was too low and the weather conditions were too unfavourable for them to fly.
According to Thulasizwe Buthelezi, the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs in KwaZulu-Natal, the heavy snow in certain areas also affected the water and electricity supply. Technical teams worked tirelessly to restore these services.
Buthelezi especially advised people not to go snow-watching for pleasure as the roads were extremely dangerous due to the ice.
The SA Weather Service had repeatedly warned prospective travellers a week ago that extreme weather conditions would move over KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Free State from Friday. However, with schools closing on Friday, motorists ignored this warning.
– Due to the severe weather conditions in KwaZulu-Natal, City Press cannot be distributed in KwaZulu-Natal today. Readers can still read City Press on citypress.co.za