Mzansi’s freezing winter comes with a heat warning

We might do many things well as citizens of Mzansi.

We play rugby better than anyone else, we produce music that takes the world by storm, our football players are improving, and we have a sense of our diverse self that is going to become more and more important to the world in the near future.

But one thing we do not do well is cold.

It literally brings us all to a halt.

My WhatsApp groups this morning were full of laments about Joburg’s City Power cutting electricity, while others just couldn’t get going and stepping outside felt like torture.

It was one of those days when I scurried out of the house because I knew the office I was heading to would be warm.

Even there, things were different. Work was being done. Because it had to be done, not because there was much joy in it.

Over the weekend I bumped into a person from another, colder clime who remarked that in South Africa, “when the Springboks are playing, or when it’s cold, you just can’t get anything done”.

It was one of those insightful observations that could come only from a friendly outsider.

Even I, warmly dressed as I am, hunched over a computer as I tap this out, am battling to get my brain firing. Normally one or two cups of caffeine (you know which kind…) will get me going.

Not today.

Proper assessment

I always wonder if it’s possible to really get a proper assessment of how much weather like this affects our businesses.

How many people just couldn’t get to work, or when they were there, in offices and factories, just found they couldn’t produce at the normal pace.

And who can blame them? The forecast maximum for Joburg today was six degrees.

You read that right, the forecast maximum was six degrees Celsius.

But, at least we have the prospect of September.

By which stage I’m fairly confident we will be running what have become the traditional Spring stories about how Johannesburg Water has run out of water because of the “routine maintenance” last year that was supposed to stop this from happening ever again.

And fairly soon we will be complaining about the complete opposite: how the grass is still brown, why is it so hot, and when will it ever rain?

Unfortunately, days like today, while extreme, are probably becoming rarer.

As cold as Joburg was today, I remember growing up with the news at 8pm (for those born in the 90s, that was a regular half-hour television news bulletin… long before CNN came to our shores) predicting temperatures of -3°C in Joburg.

And the next morning rushing out to see if the dog’s water had frozen.

I think that might have happened in my children’s lives just once.

Instead it’s all going to be complaints about the heat most of the time.

The G20, not normally known as a group willing to make wild statements, suggests that “longer heatwaves will push SA’s agriculture sector to the edge, burning up R2-billion in growth. By 2050, hundreds of thousands more people will be exposed to floods, costing the economy R14-billion.”

As bad as that is, there are certain things that we probably can plan for, particularly flooding along the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, and longer, hotter droughts.

But that seems to be much easier than what is happening in Europe.

Incredible heatwaves

Their summer has been not just marked, but absolutely defined, by incredible heatwaves.

Just as we are not able to do anything when it’s cold, they can’t do anything when it’s hot.

But our cold has not been nearly as extreme as their heat.

And while I’m generally not alarmist, even my eyebrows rise more than slightly when I read that Britain’s spy bosses believe their country “will not have a future” if it doesn’t change course on climate issues soon.

ECO COLLAPSE OP-ED

Climate cover-up leaves Europe burning as warnings are buried

August 3, 2026

They’re worried the UK will not be able to produce enough food, alongside all sorts of other problems caused by rising heat.

It may just be my third americano and the warming vibe in my office, but I’m confident things will not be that apocalyptic for our children.

This week we crossed a global threshold that now sees three terawatts of electricity being produced by solar panels.

Nothing hugely significant about that. Except that the first terawatt took 10 years.

To move from two terawatts to three terawatts (you’re right – I also quite like that word) took us just two.

This process is unstoppable. And while there are still arguments to come about storage and lithium mining and all sorts of other things, I do believe solar power will literally save the planet.

And us along with it.

It’s a truly warming thought on a very chilly evening. DM