Weekend storms leave 100,000 without power in the Eastern Cape

Storms in the Eastern Cape at the weekend affected the power supply of  more than 100,000 people.

"Supply restored to +- 80,000 customers affected by storms that hit EC on Sunday, 3 Feb. Technicians are working to restore the remaining 20,200 customers. We appeal to customers to be patient and treat all appliances as live. Supply may be restored at any time," Eskom tweeted on Monday.

Weather service SAWS warned that severe thunderstorms with excessive lightning, strong winds, heavy downpours and damaging hail could be expected across the Amathole district municipality in the Eastern Cape.

Emile van Rooyen tweeted a photograph of a hailstone about the size of a golf ball which fell in Molteno at the weekend.

Meanwhile, thunderstorms, heavy rain and hail affected other parts of the country with storms destroying 70 homes in the Alfred Duma local municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal, leaving almost 400 people homeless.

Thembisile Msibi, 67, lost her house where she lived with her four grandchildren and sought shelter with her neighbours during the storm.

"I am grateful for the quick response that has been provided and we now have hope that we can pick up our lives following what we went through last night," Msibi said.

Provincial co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube visited the area on Sunday.

"What we have witnessed here  is heartbreaking; the sight of houses completely destroyed by last night’s storm is unimaginable. We have accompanied our teams to lend a hand in the mop-up operation as many families have been left with nothing."

Affected households received sanitary products, food, stoves, cutlery and emergency accommodation.

Parts of the Free State also received heavy rain and some hail over the weekend.

The weather service forecast thunderstorms for Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Free State, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and parts of North West.