Overview
- The South African Weather Service issued the warnings on Thursday for weather expected on Friday, Sept 18, 2026, including an orange level 6 for disruptive rain in southern KwaZulu‑Natal and an orange level 5 for parts of the Eastern Cape.
- The orange alerts signal a high chance of flooding of roads, low‑lying settlements and bridges and explicitly warn of danger to life from fast‑flowing water and deep floodwater.
- Named local municipalities under the orange warnings include coastal and adjacent interior areas up to Richards Bay in KwaZulu‑Natal and Port St Johns, Ingquza Hill, Winnie Madikizela‑Mandela and Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape.
- SAWS also issued yellow level 4 and 2 warnings for heavy downpours, severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, hail and isolated snowfall over high ground in the Northern Cape, Free State, North West and parts of KZN and the Eastern Cape.
- Residents should expect travel disruption, localised power and communications outages and possible displacement, and they are advised to follow SAWS updates and local emergency instructions because these bulletins are forecasts of imminent impacts not reports of confirmed damage.