THE South African Weather Service (Saws) has issued a heat wave warning, which is expected to creep through parts of the country from Wednesday, 4 October right through to Friday, 6 October.
The heatwave will affect North West, Free State, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
The last time the country saw a deadly heatwave was in January 2023 when five people died at Kakamas Hospital in the Northern Cape due to heatstroke.
At the time, North Cape Health spokesman Lulu Mxekezo said heatstroke was a condition presenting as fever and often unconsciousness caused by the failure of the body's temperature-regulating mechanism when exposed to excessively high temperatures.
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In light of these harsh heat conditions, Saws has urged residents to be cautions of intense exposure to the sun as it poses health risks such as heat stroke and dehydration
Explaining the reasons behind a heatwave, weather forecaster Kgolofelo Mahlangu said heatwaves occur when temperatures exceed the maximum temperature for that particular city by five degrees or more for three consecutive days.
"It's prolonged periods of abnormal heat," she said.
While heatwaves have no association to any veld fires, she cautioned people in areas such as the eastern parts of the Northern Cape, western parts of the North West, Free State, places in the interior of KZN and parts of Limpopo to stay away from unnecessary fires as there's a red warning for fire danger.
Kgolofelo noted that should people in these areas wish to start fires, they must be contained so that it doesn't run way into veld fires.
