Fears for homeless, animals as cold fronts expected to hit SA from Tuesday

The weather service is worried about the country's homeless with two cold fronts set to hit this week.

The service warned residents to expect freezing temperatures on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - this due to separate cold fronts, on top of one that left the country on Monday and bought some rain to parts of Eastern Cape and Western Cape.

Forecaster Vanetia Phakula said the cold fronts would begin to affect Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga and Free State. They are set to bring cold conditions, strong winds and possible rainfall, especially in the mornings.

"The minimum temperatures will be below zero over the interior," she said.

Phakula said homeless people would be the worst affected.

"We're concerned mostly about homeless people ... as temperatures will start dropping at 2am," she said.

People should dress warmly and keep a safe distance when driving, and farmers should do what they can to protect their livestock.

The service also advised the Disaster Risk Mangement Centre that the cold fronts approaching would move over southwestern Cape on Tuesday afternoon, which might result in strong to gale force winds throughout the day along the coast.

Swells are also expected to increase to as much as 5.5m along the same stretch of coastline.