Western Cape towns working to repair damage caused by storm

Ceres and its surrounds are still in a blackout on Tuesday morning.

Over the past 48 hours, the storm knocked out the power for the Witzenberg Municipality, which covers the towns of Ceres, Tulbagh and Wolseley.

The municipality’s Candice Biscome said that technicians were working around the clock to repair the damage.

“Eskom has worked tirelessly in conjunction with our municipal technical team and thanks to their tremendous efforts, our one transformer is live. Assembly and setting of the relevant breaker is currently under way and if all goes well, the power should be restored by noon today.”

Meanwhile, the Garden Route Disaster Risk Management’s Wouter Jacobs said that flooding had been reported in the Mossel Bay and Calitzdorp areas where officials on Monday closed several roads due to the inclement weather.

He said that while no new incidents were reported overnight, inspections would get under way on Tuesday morning and all roads have since been reopened.

Jacobs said that the weather they saw over the past two days was fairly normal in that region this time of year.

“We had severe flooding a year ago around this time – we measured more than a 150 millimetres of rain in an hour’s time so this is not uncommon for the area.”

-EWN

In other news – Halala! Ex-Minister Malusi Gigaba getting married for the third time

Former Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, Malusi Gigaba is set to get married for the third time, according to Zimoja.

The 51-year-old politician, who has also held office as the Minister of Public Enterprise, is said to have paid lobola for his Eswatini fiancée, Nomfundo Fakudze. The publication reports that Gigaba sent his uncles to the Kingdom of Eswatini in Manzini this past weekend. Learn More