A cut-off low pressure cell has been hovering over the south-eastern Cape for about a week now, and the extreme rain conditions, to which the Eastern Cape is not used, struck in midweek. You have probably all noted the heavy rainfall round about Knysna and inland of it, since midweek.
48-hour rainfall figures up to 8am Thursday morning revealed 300 mm in Joubertina, 280 mm near Knysna, 216 in George, 110 in Uitenhage and 106 in Port Elizabeth. And there has been more, and there will continue to be more in to the middle of this week.
The Kouga, Groendal, Loerie, Impofu and Churchill dams all rose from an average for all 5 dams of 36.3% full before the rains, to 117% full by Friday the 8th. The Kromme river became a raging torrent and people along the banks were encouraged and then ordered to evacuate to high ground to prevent disaster.
two men spent a very cold 2 days in an abandoned shed above the river when Meiringspoort’s N12 mountain pass was washed away. They were eventually rescued by helicopter.
Mayor Hattingh Bornman, of the Kouga Local Municipality has posted many reports on FaceBook of areas being flooded or washed away, low-lying communities being saturated as rivers overflowed their banks, and continuing icy rain.
The NSRI was activated in Oyster Bay to rescue multiple people and animals trapped at Kingsway Resort on the Gamtoos river. NSRI in Gqeberha, Jefferys Bay, St Francis Bay and Oyster Bay were all activated,, together with SAPS and other rescue organisations. Rescue swimmers, CROCS (small floating canoes) police divers. EMS rescue squads and lots of Good Samaritans were all roped in.
In the end 49 people were rescued aged from 5 to 80 years old, and an undetermined number of animals as well
Andrew Gray ZS2G, of HAMNET Eastern Cape reports that 2000 flood affected victims in Nelson Mandela Bay area were moved to shelters, and will need donations of food and blankets to keep them going.
And the Western Cape is threatened with heavy and disruptive rainfall starting this morning early, affecting the Winelands and the Overberg regions as well, and resulting in about 140mm of rain being predicted by Tuesday. This is very good news for our dams which have been showing signs of impending emptiness over the hot summer, provided of course that some of the rain falls in their catchment areas.
Low temperatures are also expected in Gauteng, following the typical winter pattern characterized by icy mornings, mild afternoons and cooler evenings.
In another of his very nice reports after a motor rally in the Western Cape, Ian Bradley ZS1BR has noted that amateur radio operators once again played a vital supporting role at the 2026 Swartland National Rally, held on 24 and 25 April in the Swartland region of the Western Cape. As one of the key rounds in the South African National Rally Championship calendar, the event brought together rally crews, officials, support teams and volunteers from around the country.
Operations were conducted on 145.650 MHz via the Hawequa Repeater, which provided dependable wide-area coverage for the duration of the event.
Day 1 began at De Werf Padstal, where the radio team met to fit mobile radios and mag-mount antennas into the Clerk of the Course (CoC) vehicle, the Zero Cars and the commentator’s vehicle. The commentator’s vehicle was fitted with a radio but intentionally not equipped with a microphone, as no dedicated radio operator was assigned to that vehicle. This allowed the commentator to monitor the control net and maintain situational awareness without risk of transmitting.
Once the mobile installations were complete, the control station was established at Hermitake Restaurant, just outside the town of Hermon, which served as the primary Rally HQ for Day 1 operations.
Due to delays accumulated throughout the day, Stage 6 was ultimately scrubbed, and Stage 5 was run as the designated night stage, concluding at 20:30.
While there were no major incidents requiring the medical team to be dispatched there were plenty of retirements due to mechanical failure throughout the day. Of the 33 starters, only 19 teams completed all 5 stages.
Less than 12 hours later Day 2 operations began with control being established at Hoërskool Swartland at 08:00. Who said being a radio amateur was easy?
With the previous day’s challenges resolved and lessons from Day 1 already applied, the second day started far more smoothly.
The first two stages ran on time and were incident free. However, an accident in the third stage brought the rally to a halt. The CoC was quickly informed as soon as Control received the message so that the stage could be stopped and the medics sent in. It was soon determined that a spectator had been hit by a rock, kicked up by one of the passing cars, which broke his leg. While all safety measures were in place, rallying is still a dangerous sport, and unfortunate accidents do happen from time to time. We wish him all the best with his recovery.
No further incidents were reported for the day; however, the delays in Stage 3 did push the end time for the rally back by about 50 minutes.
ZS1BR comments that, In a motorsport environment where timing, safety and rapid coordination are critical, dependable communications remain essential—and amateur radio continues to prove its value in exactly this role. The 2026 Swartland National Rally once again highlighted one of amateur radio’s enduring strengths: the ability to provide reliable, infrastructure-independent communications in support of safety, coordination and event operations under real-world field conditions.
A sincere thank you goes to ZS1MJT, ZS1ATX, ZS1ES, ZR1JL, ZS1LAM, ZS1WV and ZS1YT who gave their time, equipment and expertise in support of the event, as well as to ZR1FR and ZS1JM for working their magic behind the scenes.
As a point of interest, 827 times were passed on top of all the other transmissions over the two days!
And thanks of course to Ian, who conveniently leaves himself out when he thanks the crew, for your efforts Ian at control, and for the report.
I’m sure you’ll all join me in celebrating the hundredth birthday of Sir David Attenborough this week, whose videos of nature all around the globe, have increased our knowledge of the world we live in. I see the plastic block company that is Lego has changed its meme on its boxes of kits that say for people from 2 to 99, to now say 2-100+, so that Sir David isn’t excluded from enjoying playing with the stuff! Happy Birthday, Sir David.
This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, remembering with pain the occasions when he has trodden on a Lego block unseen on the carpet, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.