For many in the Western Cape, the severe drought of 2017/18 is a distant memory, but on the Mossel Bay Vlakte the drought never really ended.
Photo: Supplied | Gift of the Givers
“We have actually been in a drought for 10 years. For three of those years, things were a little better, but we were never really out of trouble,” Jasper van der Westhuizen, a sheep and livestock farmer from the area, told Farmer’s Weekly.
During this time, farm incomes have dwindled along with livestock numbers, and financial losses have mounted as farmers have increasingly had to supplement poor grazing with feed and additional nutrition. On Van Der Westhuizen’s own farm, the last meaningful rains fell in September 2024.
“Grain farmers would tell you they had a very good year in 2024, but it was not the case for us livestock farmers. This past year our area received extremely little rainfall, and conditions were unfavourable and difficult for livestock and grain farmers,” Van Der Westhuizen said.
He compared the grazing conditions in the area to a bowling green, which looks good, but has little nutrition.
“For most of 2025 we had a bowling green, up until the beginning of October, and ever since then it has looked like a red runway.”
Van Der Westhuizen had been a co-ordinator of farming aid during the early drought years, and had come into contact with Ali Sablay, Gift of the Givers’ Western Cape project manager, in 2017 until the end of 2019.
“The idea for this most recent donation came after Ali drove through the area and saw how dry it was. He phoned me to ask how things were going, and then he said it was definitely time to do something to help,” Van Der Westhuizen said.
The potatoes were donated by Stanley de Beer of Bell Rive Farming, who grows potatoes, maize and pecan nuts under irrigation in Hertzogville and Christiana. He has been donating surpluses from his farming business – mostly seed potatoes and lucerne, to farmers in need for the past five years, but has never before seen where the donations went.
“I couldn’t believe how dry the area was,” De Beer said of what he had seen during the handover. “Now I am even more determined to donate to those in need if I have anything available.”
Gift of the Givers also distributed grocery hampers, hygiene packs and bottled water to farmers and farmworkers.
Van Der Westhuizen expressed his heartfelt gratitude for De Beer’s generous donation, which would give some of the farmers breathing space. However, most farmers in the area have nothing left in their feed banks for winter.
“For the livestock farmers in our area to recover, we would need at least three seasons of excellent rain. That would enable us to get our businesses back to where they were three years ago,” Van Der Westhuizen said.
