Brace yourself for a stormy three days

Snow‚ rain and gale force winds - that's what the weather man has predicted for the next three days.

The South African weather service said on Monday that a cold snap will affect most of the country from Wednesday onwards with "significant snowfall over the southern and central Drakensberg".

"Snowfall could be heavy over the north-eastern parts of the Eastern Cape‚ possibly leading to the closure of the majority of the mountain passes in the region as well as associated disruption of traffic flow.

The weather service said rain and showers are expected over the south-western parts of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday and by Thursday rainfall is expected to move eastwards with the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal facing the worst with localised flooding.

"Along much of the southern coastline‚ periods of strong‚ gusty winds. There is a strong likelihood that gale force winds of a damaging nature as well as rough to very rough sea conditions may develop along the Wild Coast and KZN on Thursday. "

The weather pattern is expected to settle at the weekend.

EThekwini municipality's head of communication‚ Tozi Mthethwa said on Monday that due to high seas forecast for the next few days‚ the Reunion‚ Pipeline‚ Warner and uMgababa beaches have been temporarily closed.

"This decision was taken after careful deliberation with the South African Weather Bureau and the Sharks Board. The closure entails the lifting of shark nets at the above mentioned beaches."

She said the municipality will continue to monitor all other beaches.