By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
Heavy rains and winds battered the Western Cape on Sunday and Monday, forcing hundreds of families to flee their flooded homes.
About 2,000 families fled their shacks in Mfuleni after a night of pouring rain, community leader Thembisa Thuba said. She said clothes and bedding had been washed away and electrical appliances drenched.
“Residents have left their shacks to save their lives,” she said.
Thuba said she and other community leaders were opening locked but uninhabited shacks to accommodate flood victims.
Gift of the Givers has deployed teams to the Western Cape. They will provide humanitarian aid as heavy rains and strong winds grip parts of the province.
Three people died and 21 others were injured after a Golden Arrow bus overturned along Jakes Gerwel Drive in Cape Town.
The accident happened at around 08:45 on Monday.
According to Golden Arrow Bus Services’ HR and corporate affairs executive, John Dammert, the driver lost control of the bus.
Videos and images of the accident, shows the overturned bus on wet roads.
Passengers were seen trapped underneath the bus.
Dammert said the injured were taken to Groote Schuur, Tygerberg and Mitchells Plain hospitals. Four young boys were also found dead in Philippi.
The Western Cape Department of Mobility has urged motorists not to leave their locations because of road closures due to the severe storm that hit the province over the weekend.
And those already travelling on affected routes should either consider turning back or finding alternative accommodation Monday evening.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Western Cape Mobility MEC Ricardo Mackenzie said the severe rainfall and flooding has caused significant disruptions to the roads across the Western Cape.
Mackenzie said there have been closures on all major roadways, including the N1, N2, R60 and R62.
“Traffic is moving very slowly on heavily congested routes near Worcester, as all traffic from the N2 has been diverted to the N1,” Mackenzie said.