Farmer's Social Media Plea Brings R1M in Drought Relief

Werner Heyns didn't expect his social media post to turn into a lifeline for an entire farming region.

The general manager of Pabala Private Nature Reserve watched his neighbors in Kouga struggle through months of drought that left their livestock with nothing to eat. On January 5, he posted a simple plea for help on Facebook.

Within hours, offers flooded in from 900 kilometers away. An anonymous farmer in Welkom sent bales of feed. Tannie Joey van Heerden from Brits offered 900 bales of lucerne. Oom Chris van Rhyn from eMalahleni donated R10,000 for transport costs.

"My Facebook exploded," Heyns said. "I did not really know any of these people and the response was truly overwhelming."

Then disaster struck harder. Three days after his post, wildfires tore through the region between Kouga and Nelson Mandela Bay. Farmhouses burned to the ground, and what little vegetation the drought hadn't killed turned to ash.

But the donations kept coming. Major supermarket chains including Checkers, Shoprite, and Pick n Pay volunteered trucks. Road freight companies like Miltrans and Sutherland Transport hauled bales across the country for free.

Within two weeks, more than R1 million worth of animal feed reached Hankey. More than 150 farmers, including those who lost everything in the fires, collected supplies to keep their livestock alive.

"They might not have much left, but at least they could get some feed," Heyns said about the fire victims who benefited from the donations still arriving.

The Ripple Effect

The rescue effort proves something powerful about South Africa's private sector. When Heyns gave voice to his neighbors' struggle, businesses and strangers across the country responded without hesitation.

Further west in KouKamma, where fires destroyed 15,000 hectares of farmland, similar help arrived. Voermol Feeds donated 32 tonnes of products for distribution among the hardest hit farms.

Heyns refuses to take credit, pointing to a simple truth that motivated the donors. "If our farmers fold, our country folds," he said. "I think more and more people are realising that, and they want to help where they can."

As of Monday, four more trucks loaded with donated feed were still making their way to the Eastern Cape.