JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Residents of South Africa’s biggest city Johannesburg were stunned by the first snowfall in over a decade on Monday, with some children seeing snow for the first time.
While parts of South Africa regularly receive snowfall over the southern hemisphere winter months around June to August, Johannesburg last saw snow in August 2012.
After getting her picture taken on Nelson Mandela Square in the financial district, Jennifer Banda told Reuters that she was pregnant the last time it snowed.
“Eleven years down the line, it’s exciting that we have snow,” she said.
South of the city in Brackenhurst, a Reuters photographer saw children making snowballs and snow angels in a school’s grounds.
But for others, like delivery driver Chenjerai Murape whose motorbike would not start, the snow made life difficult.
“I’m trying to warm the engine so that it can start … otherwise I will kick the bike all day,” he said.
The South African Weather Service has issued warnings because of the cold front that has struck Gauteng province, which contains Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.
Snow was also seen on Monday in the coal belt in Mpumalanga province, where many of struggling utility Eskom’s power stations are located.
(Reporting by Tannur Anders, Thando Hlophe, Catherine Schenck, Shafiek Tassiem and Siphiwe Sibeko; Editing by Alexander Winning)
