WATCH: Snow and icy, wet weather leaves motorists stranded along Van Reenen’s Pass

Van Reenen’s pass remains closed to traffic due to adverse weather conditions creating dangerous driving conditions.

On Saturday morning, a total road closure remained in effect between Estcourt in KwaZulu-Natal and Harrismith in the Free State.

Wilge Plaza in Villiers has also been closed and will remain inaccessible until road incident management teams have been able to clear the roadway and determine that conditions are safe enough to open the route to traffic.

Icy conditions, wet weather, and poor visibility have also been reported along other sections of the route causing dangerous driving conditions from KwaZulu-Natal through the Free State, the southern parts of Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

Motorists have been urged to avoid all travel to the region.

“Disaster management teams are working around the clock to reach crash scenes, emergency incidents, and stranded road users.

“N3TC appeals to all motorists to head the warnings and avoid all travel to the area until further notice, to avoid compounding the current dire situation that many stranded road users have found themselves in,” said the toll concession’s Thania Dhoogra.

MOTORISTS STUCK ON THE N3 IN EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

The N3 Toll Concession says due to heavy snowfall and conditions that have become treacherous, the route remains closed from Estcourt in KZN to Harrismith in the Free State - with Van Reenen's Pass shut, and various other lanes closed.

Malcom Hendricks who is travelling back to Durban from Rustenburg with work colleagues says the road seemed clear until they reached Bergview.

"The snow got really heavy, we tried to carry on down towards Montrose and to have another stop over there. On the way we were stuck for about half an hour, there were incidents on the road from about 9 o’ clock last night until now."

His colleague says they were not given any indication beforehand despite seeing emergency vehicles along the route.

"When we left Bergview, the road was open and there were police and emergency services but not once did they stop the people and say go back. So, everyone rode and rode until we just came to a halt.

"We are fine, we’ve got power and enough fuel. My concern is that there are people here you can see with children and with elderly people. We are not far from Harrismith but we don’t see any small initiative from the Harrismith side, where there are emergency rescue teams."

The weather office, which issued warnings about these severe conditions days ago, says the alerts remain in place.

There is a level 6 warning for disruptive snowfall, resulting in the loss of livestock and crops, over the extreme south-western parts of KZN today.

A similar level 2 alert has been sent out for the province's western region.

There is also a warning for disruptive rainfall which could result in localised flooding in northern KZN.

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