FAST FACTS
KwaZulu-Natal has suffered a series of calamities over the past three years, with rural communities suffering in particular from the floods of April 2022.
The floods destroyed more than 4 000 homes and left 40 000 people homeless.
A survey revealed that cane growers sustained extensive damage to cane fields and farm infrastructure.
KwaZulu-Natal's farming community has been hit with a barrage of challenges since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These began with pandemic-related restrictions in 2020, were followed by the anarchy and destruction of the unrest and rioting in 2021, and were succeeded in turn by the April 2022 floods.
The floods have been described as the most catastrophic natural disaster yet recorded in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in terms of lives lost, homes and infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and economic impact, according to a study by researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg and the University of Brighton, UK, published in the South African Geographical Journal.
On 11 April 2022, the KZN coastal zone, including the
