By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Thembi Nkadimeng, says the department is preparing for any eventuality ahead of the announcement that Cyclone Freddy is expected to bring heavy rains and strong winds in the north eastern part of South Africa
The storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall which could lead to flooding in the north-eastern parts of South Africa this weekend.
Areas expected to be affected by the storm are parts of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
On Wednesday afternoon Cyclone Freddy had downgraded to an “overland depression” in Madagascar and was expected to enter the Mozambican channel anytime from the evening.
An overland depression is a lesser storm with wind speeds of up to 60km/h compared to a cyclone’s 120km/h.
This means that its impact would have been weakened.
But there’s a possibility that it could gather more speed and force if the sea surface temperature over the channel between Madagascar and Mozambique was higher than 30 degrees Celsius just like Cyclone Eloise in January 2021.
Nkadimeng called on communities, who may be affected by Cyclone Freddy, to heed warnings and evacuate if necessary.
Listen more to the notices of evacuations, stay safe and don’t try to cross any streams. One of the cases in Nkomazi [Local Municipality] was a learner who was trying to cross a stream out of school and he’s still missing as of [Tuesday].
“We have had six fatalities in that area alone, and 11 in the entirety of Mpumalanga [as a result of the current flooding]. One life is one too many, so we need to stay clear of streams. Our teams are on the ground, humanitarian relief as well, readying ourselves for Friday and Saturday in any eventuality that we may need to evacuate more people,” Nkadimeng said.
She said Cyclone Freddy is expected to bring added pressure on infrastructure and homes that are already flood battered and will set back ongoing relief efforts.
“It is anticipated that it will continue pouring in Mpumalanga. We are already sitting at about 1 929 houses that must be [provided] for human settlement relief, only in Mpumalanga.
“So you can see that if we are going to combine a budget for human settlement relief and development for all the seven [affected] provinces, we are going to be ranging into serious billions of rands in terms of what we need to repair,” she said.