Cape Town — Residents of Johannesburg and Cape Town are struggling to cope with the aftermath of severe flooding that has left many people destitute. The heavy rainfall, which included thunder showers in Cape Town, has caused widespread damage to homes and businesses and has disrupted essential services such as electricity and sanitation.
The City of Cape Town said its Disaster Risk Management Centre was monitoring any potential effects of the severe level 3 thunderstorm warning issued by the South African Weather Service. Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said, “Thus far, there have not been any significant incidents reported to the centre, but we are conducting a few assessments and will report back where relevant.”
According to IOL, Drakenstein Municipality spokesperson Riana Geldenhuys said that power outages were a result of the storm and encouraged donations to assist affected residents. “The Municipality’s Electro-Technical Services division are attending to these outages and restoring power as soon as they can. People who would like to donate items to those residents whose homes have been flooded, are encouraged to deliver these to the Fire Station in Berg River Boulevard in Paarl,” she added.
The floods also had a devastating impact on the local economy, with many businesses forced to close as their premises flooded. Medicare EMR confirmed that heavy rainfall caused the collapse of the hospital roof, requiring staff and patients to be evacuated from the Paarl facility near Cape Town.
City of Johannesburg public safety MMC David Tembe said of the flooding in Setswetla in Alexandra township, that it is a “community in distress”. He said: “the building of shacks on river banks persists, rendering residents vulnerable and in danger of being swept away by raging floods at any given time. We will never shy away from the responsibility of keeping people safe. But we also need communities to play their part in ensuring that they adhere to water safety measures that the department has put in place. It is only through working together that we can really make a difference in the communities we live in,” reports Engineering News.
As the floods continue to ravage Johannesburg, residents have called on the government to provide more support and assistance to those in need. Councillor Phumlile Shange from Ward 29 in Soweto, has had to field complaints from residents over damage to their homes, EyeWitness News wrote. The mayor of Johannesburg, Mpho Phalatse assured, however, that humanitarian and clean-up operations are under way.
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) warned of additional destructive rain for other parts of the country with forecaster Lulama Pheme issuing an orange level 5 warning for central and western parts of the Free State. SAWS also called the for the responsible sharing of current weather-related news to avoid unnecessary alarm. “We appeal to residents to use verified platforms to seek weather-related updates, such as the South African Weather Service page on social media and news updates. The circulation of old videos and images causes unnecessary panic,” SAWS said in a statement.
The floods come in the same year as the April 2022 flood disaster that caused significant damage to infrastructure in various provinces. In the wake of the disaster, which largely affected the province of KwaZulu-Natal, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster. Over 400 people died in the floods, which also damaged 4,000 homes and left about 9,000 people displaced.