Heavy rains pushed the Kouga Dam to 119.2 percent capacity on Thursday morning, sending water over the spillway at a rate of 2.2 million litres per second. The sudden rise from 32 percent the day before forced evacuations in the Gamtoos River valley and flooded farms in the Eastern Cape.
The Kouga Dam, which supplies Nelson Mandela Bay, reached full capacity and beyond after parts of its catchment recorded up to 900 millimetres of rain in 48 hours. Gamtoos Water chief executive Reinette Kolesky said staff measured 2,249 cubic metres per second flowing over the spillway shortly after 11am on Thursday. She added that safety margins allow for much higher flows and dismissed social media claims that the dam was cracking.
Kouga Municipality mayor Hattingh Bornman issued evacuation notices early Thursday for farms along the Kouga, Groot and Gamtoos rivers. Property owners moved livestock to higher ground and some residents relocated valuables or left holiday homes. In Patensie, citrus orchards were inundated, with only tree tops visible above the water. Paradise Beach near Jeffreys Bay was cut off when its access bridge flooded.
Other dams in the system also overflowed, with Impofu exceeding capacity for the first time in 11 years. Further west, heavy rain damaged water infrastructure near Plettenberg Bay and closed schools in parts of the Garden Route. One fatality was reported in Knysna when a tree fell on a vehicle. The weather system has since moved offshore.