Mother City visit: Relentless rain and driving winds

There’s a moment of silence now. The kind of silence that gets louder with each passing second, until once again being broken by the roar of a Northerly gale against the window of my bedroom.

It is 6:30 in the morning on Sunday. I have been in bed since last night – I couldn’t tell you how much of that time I have actually slept.

The storm which, for the whole of Saturday had been touted as “the worst is yet to come” by locals, eventually struck around the time I went to bed. For the whole night the wind has tried to remove the roof of my parents house. Rain – and more recently hail – has hammered against the window pains with such force that the sound has become just a constant roar of noise, a cocophony of rattling, hammering, beating and banging as the water is thrown against the glass by the raging wind.

I have just looked outside the window – fearful of what I might see, but the sun appears to have been too scared to wake up this morning, and it is still dark outside.

Cape Town is already soaked to the skin from a very wet winter, and the ground is very close to saturated. I cannot see how the rain of the last 7 hours could not have caused flooding – and possibly severe flooding. And I cannot see how the wind has not caused damage to homes and businesses – and particularly to those living in the informal settlements around Cape Town.

I am in a brick and mortar house in Tableview – and I feel fortunate to still be in Tableview, and not to have been transported to Muizenberg like some modern day Dorothy.

It would be a miracle of quite some order if the Mother City has come through the night with just minor damage. I fear what dawn’s light may reveal.

Mother City visit: Miserable Mom gets a facelift

When I was growing up, there would be Winters in Cape Town that would be cold, and grey and wet. This weekend is just like those Winters of my memories.

Having landed quite late on Friday evening, I was fortunate to get to my parents just minutes before the heavens opened and the rain poured for quite some time. Saturday morning was quieter, but no less grey and ferocious. The Northerly wind is blowing at gale force strength at times, and it is really not a pleasant experience going out. I took some photos while out today, but as you can see, could not even SEE the mountain through the cloud and precipitation.

I was out today, travelling to Somerset West and to Big Bay in Blouberg. And I got to see that, despite being miserable (well, this weekend anyway the Mother City is preparing herself for the football World Cup, under going a fairly major facelift in areas – preparing herself to not just looking beautiful, but to be more welcoming to visitors.

And that got me thinking, there was and continues to be a lot of argument about the pros and cons of hosting such major events as the Olympics and the Football World Cup. But the “success” of such events is very subjective. South Africa’s Beijing Olympic Games experience was anything BUT a success – with just a single Silver medal. Businesses, sponsors and corporate partners will measure “success” purely in monetary terms.

But perhaps more importantly (in my mind at least) is the legacy that such an event creates for the general public, the people living in the host country.


And it occurred to me that in the years I lived in Cape Town, I cannot recall the N2 motorway ever undergoing such building work. I cannot recall the amount of road works that I saw today, as the transport system of Cape Town receives some long overdue attention.

To my mind, the legacy of the event, the manner it enriches the lives of the people of South Africa – not in monetary terms but in uplifting their lives and way of life – these are the measures that will ultimately prove whether the Football World Cup is a success or a failure.

Mother City visit

I am off to the Cape Town for the weekend. I have not visited the Mother City since last June and am quite looking forward to returning to my roots – even for a few hours. Thing is, Cape Town has been more “Cape of Storms” than maternal over the last few weeks, and I fear those roots might be well and truly sodden!

All the same, I just spent 6 years in the UK – how bad could Cape Town possibly be by comparison!

Anticipate more photos from my weekend – just expect to see far less sun than in the photos from the Berg!