Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba, on Friday, declared the city a state of disaster following last weekend’s hailstorm.

JOHANNESBURG - Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba says the city will be working closely with the SA Weather Service to ensure communities are alerted to severe storms and tornados.

Mashaba has declared the city a state of disaster following last weekend’s hailstorm.

Over 3,000 homes were affected, and damages are estimated at R186 million.

Mashaba says alerting communities in time is important.

“They demonstrated to us the type of technology advancement they have in picking up the weather, so what we believe we need to do going forward is to ensure that we speed up communication to our people.”

Meanwhile, no thunderstorms expected this weekend, instead, a heatwave is expected to last until Monday.