By Aneeqa du Plessis

As cold fronts continue to batter the Western Cape, the SA Weather Service issued an advisory for level five damaging winds for Monday. The gale-force winds can potentially cause damage to formal and informal housing structures, electrical and communication infrastructure and uprooting of trees.

According to the City of Cape Town’s (COCT) Charlotte Powell, additional reports of flooded roadways in Uitsig and Silversands, as well as flooding in the Kosovo informal settlement in Philippi, and damage to the roof of a house in Hanover Park has been recorded.

“City departments are still busy with mopping up operations across all affected areas,” added Powell.

Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell, said another cold front has made landfall bringing with it heavy rain in parts of the province.

“The West Coast District has been hard hit by recent cold fronts, with widespread flooding making many roads and bridges inaccessible. The cold front is generating wave heights ranging between four to five metres between Alexander Bay and Plettenberg Bay,” said Bredell.

Speaking on VOC’s Breakfast show on Monday morning, Provincial head of disaster management Colin Deiner said it’s been a strenuous task for officials to tackle so many affected areas at once.

“It’s the fourth cold front that has hit us in less than a week and thus there are lots of compromised infrastructure but the two places we are worried about most is the Overberg and the Cape Winelands district,” explained Deiner.

However, mop-up operations have continued mid the latest bout of inclement weather.

“We also had electricity off for a few days in the Overstrand due to pylons that collapsed but that has been recovered by Eskom. What is important to note that most of the flooding came from overflowing rivers and not stormwater drains. It was difficult for any system to handle and anticipate this,” said Deiner.

Current road closures to note:

• Victoria Road between the N2 and Link Road in the Somerset West
•  Price and Schoonstat in the Constantia
• Govan Mbeki & Duinefontein Road is flooded in both directions and both lanes are closed
• Plateau Road at the entrance to Cape Point and Redhill
• Princess Ann and the M3 in Rosebank, where a tree has fallen on a vehicle
• Corner of Jan Smuts Drive and Mutual Way

VOC