Cape Town taxi driver swept away in river following heavy rainfall

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The City of Cape Town says a taxi driver has been swept away in a river adjacent to the N-2 highway. Mayoral Committee member, JP Smith, says officers patrolling the highway attempted to pull the taxi over.

To evade custody the driver jumped out of his taxi and into the river, which was flowing rapidly due to the heavy rainfall.

Following a night of steady rainfall City teams have been working since early Tuesday morning to clear flooded roadways. On Strand Street into town traffic officials kept a close watch as a lane had been closed while City staff went to work.

Some homeless people seeking shelter under a bridge described their discomfort:

“You see all these people here- all their clothes are wet. Also my clothes are wet. I have nothing to change into. Now you see also my blanket and mattress is there so I don’t know what I can say, serious.”

“It was raining too much and we were getting too much cold. We don’t have blankets to sleep on we sit like this now and we cannot go home because we don’t have work.”

City authorities say the Level Four warning for disruptive rain resulting in localised flooding was expected for susceptible settlements in the West Coast, Western parts of the Cape Winelands and in the Overberg Districts.

On 35th Avenue in Eureka Estate motorists tried to negotiate the flooded roadway before it was temporarily closed.

Disaster Risk Management says all City teams are on standby to deal with weather-related impacts.

Severe Weather in the Western Cape: