Severe weather forecast for Western Cape

Heavy rain, extensive gale force winds, high seas and cold weather conditions including snow is expected to grip the province from Tuesday. 

Provincial MEC of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell says while the province welcomes the wet weather with open arms, the concern is that the heavy rainfall may lead to localised flooding in some areas.

"Some of the other associated risks during bad weather like this also includes mudslides and informal settlement fires. In the Central Karoo region we had a fatality a short while ago following heavy rains in the area. We want to advise the public to use extreme caution when traveling in the Western Cape or if exposed to the weather over the next few days," Bredell says.

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His spokesperson James-Brent Styan says provincial as well as municipal disaster management centres remain fully operational with officials on standby 24/7.

Western Cape dam levels are at 17.6%.

"We are hoping that we have reached the turnaround point.  We are expecting more rain from tomorrow and we hope to see more recovery in the dam levels across the province. But we remain concerned that the weather conditions will bring localised flooding and mudslides especially following the fire season we just had," Styan says.

He urges people to continue saving water despite the forecasted rainfall.