In the heart of the Eastern Cape, just outside Mthatha in the village of Kaplan, Siphesihle Kwetana’s farm bustled with life. Then came the rain on 10 June 2025. By 13:00 the following day, her farm was completely under water, and her piggery had vanished beneath the flood.
“I got a call at 7 a.m. One of my workers who stays in the village said she couldn’t get to work. There was too much water. She sent me a video… I didn’t believe what I was seeing and feared the worst,” says the owner of Sideca (Pty) Ltd.
Kwetana is a multi-award-winning young farmer. After failing matric in 2013, she initially started selling traditional meals from a container in Mthatha. When that business shut down, she pivoted to farming, seeing a gap in the local vegetable supply.
At just 30 years old, this is her third farm. The first two, she says, came with challenges. This one was supposed to be the breakthrough. A turning point.
“I was at that stage now where I was finally harvesting the fruits of my labour. But then… I went back to zero. It’s devastating.”
R330 000 gone overnight
In total, 110 pigs died – 70 adult pigs and 40 piglets. All of them were ready for the market. All of them had already been paid for, she says.
“Customers want their money back. At the moment, I can’t give it to them.”
On the morning of the floods, which have since been declared a national disaster by Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Zolile Williams, Kwetana couldn’t even get to the farm.
“The roads were closed. We couldn’t drive. The security guard tried to save the pigs but failed.”
It wasn’t just the pigs. The cold from the storm killed 750 broiler chickens. In addition, her water pump was destroyed. Her 1 000 trays of cabbage seedlings were wiped out. The side wall and roof of the piggery were torn away, and Kwetana estimates her losses to amount to nearly R330 000.
But the true cost is harder to measure. “I’m hurt. I’m broken.”
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What makes Kwetana’s story even more harrowing is that she’s not just farming for herself. Sideca was a rare anchor of hope in this region, offering food to local spaza shops, schools, and households.
It provided employment and training. Twenty-eight students were assigned to her for in-service practical training.
“They now have to look elsewhere,” she says. “It also affected the community.”
She’s had to let go of staff. “I’m left with 10 pigs now. So I can’t employ more people.”
Even now, days later, it’s difficult for her to know what her next steps will be. “Eish. I have no steps at the moment. I bought some chickens and that’s all I can do for now.”
She estimates it will take two years to recover, if she receives help. Without it, maybe longer. Maybe never.
No disaster plan and no drainage
According to Dr Fani Ncapayi, senior researcher at the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE), the recent floods highlight the failure of municipalities to develop or implement disaster management plans.
According to Ncapayi, the fact that communities in the Eastern Cape have been hit by floods multiple times over the past few years means that the government does not play the facilitative role they claim to play, reacting after disasters have struck instead of preventing them.
“Some municipalities do not have disaster management plans despite multiple incidences of flooding over the past few years, and this is something that residents have been complaining about for years.
“The failure of municipalities to have these plans and fix drainage systems is tantamount to non-compliance with constitutional requirements, which require them to provide safe environments for residents.”
Dr Fani Ncapayi
Meanwhile, Nonkululeko Sobandla, a community development worker with the TCOE and Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) in the Eastern Cape, echoed the issue of inadequate drainage systems and said that it has a direct effect on food insecurity long after the rain has stopped.
“People lose livestock in the floods, and soil erosion makes it difficult to plant crops because the soil is too wet. This causes food prices to rise and can also lead to an increased risk of gender-based violence because women are responsible for making sure there is food on the table, and this is hard to do after flooding.”
Sobandla emphasised that climate change is a permanent reality. Without active efforts to mitigate its effects, communities will keep facing recurring disasters.
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