Pretoria - The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has warned drivers to take good care when driving in rainy conditions, especially at night when it’s harder to recognise flood dangers.
Hannelee Doubell of the SAWS told SAnews on Tuesday, that drivers should also increase the distance between cars as well as braking distance.
“Never drive into water covering the road as they wouldn’t know how deep it is or if the road has been washed away. They should also never try to drive through fast-moving flood water, rather turn around the other way.”
It has been raining in most parts of South Africa since last week and it continues to pour across the provinces.
Doubell said the rain that is being experienced currently is due to a combination of a tropical trough that is moving down from Malawi and currently over Botswana, and a westerly low pressure system, moving in a south-easterly direction from Angola.
“The satellite image for 8:00 this morning showed the location of the tropical trough over Botswana.”
The forecasts and reports have showed that the North West province has received a lot of rain and flooding on Monday and this morning.
“There has been widespread reports of flooding affecting many places, especially in the North West and Gauteng.
“The N4 between Rustenburg and Swartruggens was temporarily closed on Monday due to flood waters. This morning there were also reports of many roads which could not be accessed due high levels of water,” said Doubell.
The warnings for today include heavy rain and high possibilities of flooding in North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
She said many roads have been flooded already in Gauteng this morning, and tomorrow morning the southern parts of Limpopo will be included in the heavy rain forecast.
“The public is continuously being kept informed by means of radio, television, twitter, facebook, and www.weathersa.co.za website.” - SAnews.gov.za
