{"id":6899,"date":"2023-04-04T08:29:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T06:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disabilityconnect.co.za\/?p=6899"},"modified":"2023-04-04T08:29:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T06:29:58","slug":"watch-every-man-for-himself-why-this-farmer-says-theres-a-need-for-mental-health-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/04\/watch-every-man-for-himself-why-this-farmer-says-theres-a-need-for-mental-health-help\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH | &#8216;Every man for himself&#8217;: Why this farmer says there&#8217;s a need for mental health help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bayanda Maseko, who farms south-east of Johannesburg, lost more than 2 000 chickens and R100 000 at the end of 2022 because of load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Mohale Moloi and Yolanda Mdzeke for Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism via News24<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We have buried just over 2 000 chickens. We bought them in 2022. The day we put them in, the electricity went out for about three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Chickens need water and they need [to be kept at] a certain temperature to survive. We could not [give them] that because of load shedding. We had to burn them \u2014 in a pit, along with chemicals \u2014 to make sure we disposed of them in a safe way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;That was my breaking point. Seeing my dreams just go on hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In December, we were supposed to open our first butchery. We were planning to employ about eight more people for our production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;But [instead] we had to dismiss two people because we had to downscale our operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In the last year, I&#8217;ve lost just over R100 000 [because of load shedding] and it has affected my mental health.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Sometimes you&#8217;re not aware that your mind has been hurt. You just want to fix things and move on but if you\u2019ve been traumatised, your mind needs help. You need to talk to somebody to go through a healing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s sufficient help for farmers to heal and start again. It&#8217;s every man for himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are hoping and praying that someone will come through for us. I fear for young farmers. I fear for my little children. I don&#8217;t know what the future holds for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We have so many dreams to be successful and to contribute to the economy of this beautiful country. But we don&#8217;t know how [long] we can [still] go. It&#8217;s scary.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"\u201cIt\u2019s every man for himself\u201d: Why this farmer says they need mental health help\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iY9zXW8_5-U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bayanda Maseko manages the operations on his family&#8217;s farm outside Nigel, south of Johannesburg. He spoke to Mohale Moloi and Yolanda Mdzeke for the March episode of Health Beat,\u00a0Bhekisisa&#8217;s\u00a0monthly television show. The episode\u00a0unpacks how power cuts have affected people&#8217;s mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There have been\u00a0372 days of scheduled power cuts\u00a0from the beginning of 2021 to the end of March \u2014 of which only 75 were in 2021. The number of hours of load shedding in 2022 was\u00a0three times more than in the last five years. According to AgriSA, the agriculture sector lost more than\u00a0R23 billion because of load shedding between January and September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an\u00a0online survey\u00a0by the\u00a0South African Depression and Anxiety Group\u00a0(Sadag) one in three people said load shedding resulted in strained family relationships. Three-quarters said being expected to produce the same amount of work despite having sporadic power supply caused stress. Four in 10 people reported feeling depressed because of load shedding and six in 10 struggled with anxiety and panic because of power cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>If you are struggling with your mental health, you can call Sadag&#8217;s 24-hour <\/em><em>toll-free&nbsp;<\/em><em>helpline. Sadag: 0800 456 789.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Lifeline SA has a WhatsApp service to book a session with their counsellors. Add 065 989 9238 to your phone book and send them a message.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This story was produced by the\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/scanmail.trustwave.com\/?c=20371&amp;d=wMOq5O76zU-dHIGKjBGigLXQA26szhKKfEmd_ss4PA&amp;u=http%3a%2f%2fbhekisisa%2eorg%2e%2f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bayanda Maseko, who farms south-east of Johannesburg, lost more than 2 000 chickens and R100 000 at the end of 2022 because of load shedding. By Mohale Moloi and Yolanda Mdzeke for Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism via News24 &#8220;We have buried just over 2 000 chickens. We bought them in 2022. The day we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35],"tags":[490,39,41],"class_list":["post-6899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-focus","category-in-the-news","tag-bhekisisa-centre-for-health-journalism","tag-disability","tag-disability-connect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}