The oppressive heat that has persisted in parts of South Africa over the past few weeks is neither unusual for this time of year, nor during El Niño. However, climate change is making heatwaves more frequent and severe, and making the impact of El Niño more intense.

'Every now and then, I still hear the argument that we don't know enough about future climate change, and there is uncertainty in the climate model. That's complete nonsense," said Professor Francois Engelbrecht, a climatologist and director of the Global Change Institute (GCI) at Wits University.

"We know many things about the future that are already manifesting, that should lead us to immediate climate action. One of these is heatwaves."

Since the beginning of March, there have been heatwaves on most days over the central to northeastern interior of the country, according to the SA Weather Service (Saws).

Dr Christien Engelbrecht, a meteorologist at Saws, told Daily Maverick that the heatwaves began in February and the highest temperatures were recorded at the weekend, when multiple highest maximum temperature records were broken in towns across the northeastern interior.

On Sunday, Saws' Unisa station in Pretoria, which has been operating for 30 years, recorded a record-breaking 36.1°C. The Rustenburg station in North West, which has been operating for 32 years, recorded 37.9°C, breaking a record set in 1999.

The Welkom station in Free State, in operation for 49 years, reached 38°C on Sunday, shattering the record set in 2007.

It was Augrabies...