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The snowstorm that had blocked the N3 road not only left people stranded, traumatised, or failing to enjoy their long weekend but also has left others with immense pain as they could not get a chance to bid farewell to their loved ones.
Simphiwe Masiza, businessman and founder of Empoworx – a marketing company – left Johannesburg on Friday afternoon on what was supposed to be a “normal” but painful trip to pay his last respects to a friend.
However, the trip ended up being anything but normal as it turned into “a long freezing ordeal”, with cars trapped in the thick snow, unable to move either backward or forward.
Masiza had aimed to pay his last respect to a friend but ended up stuck for 24 hours in the car on the snow-covered road, an experience he said left him in disbelief.
“It is also with great sadness that I missed the chance to say goodbye to my friend Rio Nolutshungu, a brilliant leader in local government, whose funeral I was travelling to attend. Missing his burial due to the snowstorm has been a deeply painful loss,” he said.
“Hundreds of us were stranded in a rare and extreme weather event that left us with little control over our circumstances.
“The uncertainty was particularly painful. As the night wore on, we found solace in each other, passing information from car to car. But that small comfort could not ease the growing anxiety. The backlog of vehicles stretched for kilometres, and the cold became unbearable for those unable to keep their engines running.
“It was heartbreaking to see people who were already struggling; families with babies, elderly passengers and those without access to necessities like food and warmth,” Masiza.
On the other hand, Tshwane teacher, Phumelele Dlamini, 24, was looking forward to seeing her family only to endure what she calls a “traumatising” experience.
Dlamini was heading to Kokstad from Tshwane where she teaches but ended up being trapped inside the bus with other passengers for a day in the middle of nowhere, hungry, cold, traumatised and with no restrooms nearby.
She said they were hungry and as they were in the middle of nowhere with no restrooms nearby, people had to ask strangers to accompany them so they can cover them with blankets when they went to relieve themselves in the middle of the road.
“We were stuck with old people and children.
“People would sleep and wake up to pray. Even the drivers were just sitting there looking worried and the problem was that they still had to drive to the Eastern Cape.
“It was very very bad,” she said.
She said she spent the day without moving or having something to eat and the only thing she could do was take pictures and videos.
Dlamini said her last meal had been on Friday evening and she had nothing to eat or drink on Saturday and that she kept herself stress-free by taking pictures.
“I left Pretoria around 5pm, I got myself a burger which I ate at 8pm.
“I hadn’t got a lot of stuff because I expected to arrive home around 4am.
Around 1am I saw the bus was starting to move slowly so I didn’t panic because I just thought maybe there is an accident in front of us but as we got closer and closer we realised that we are stuck and it became a mess because some cars were trying to make a U-turn,” she said.
moloih@sowetan.co.za
