The Tornado That Nelson Mandela Survived


On December 15 1998, the iconic South African president was vacationing from his presidential duties in the town of Umtata, Eastern Cape Province. Whilst visiting a pharmacy with his bodyguards, the president had to suddenly take cover under his bodyguards when a tornado impacted the building. The winds blew the windows out and collapsed the roof but the entourage survived. Others in town were not so lucky. In an unfortunately familiar trend of high-casualty events in tornadoes, 11 people died when a wall collapsed at them at a market. In another stroke of similarity to devastating events like Joplin, the town’s general hospital experienced flooding and damage at most of its facilities. Another person in the area was killed by lightning whilst the same outbreak produced a tornado in the mountain village of Hogsback where three children were injured and one was killed. Mandela had to cut his vacation short to assist the town in recovery. Despite the high death toll and prominent people involved, the event has largely faded into history. Umtata (also known as Mthatha) is something of a tornado magnet, however, with another devastating tornado killing at least 3 people and damaging the airport and school on November 17, 2020.

Sources: [https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/freak-storms-create-havoc-eastern-cape-and-president-mandela-narrowly-escaped-injury](https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/freak-storms-create-havoc-eastern-cape-and-president-mandela-narrowly-escaped-injury)

[https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/strong-suggestions-that-a-tornado-ripped-through-mthatha-sa-weather-service-20201119](https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/strong-suggestions-that-a-tornado-ripped-through-mthatha-sa-weather-service-20201119)