For the first time in 17 years, Nosipho Khosi-Dabane will spend Christmas alone — without her husband, her children and the family traditions that once defined the festive season. Six months after devastating floods swept through parts of Mthatha, claiming at least 104 lives, Khosi-Dabane is still waiting for closure. Her husband, Calvin Dabane, 44, her son Iminathi, 15, and her niece Someleze Khosi, 12, were among those who died when the floods struck Dicolyn on June 10 2025.
Her last-born child, Lusanele, 13, remains missing. Khosi-Dabane says the uncertainty surrounding her son’s disappearance has left her unable to grieve fully. “The pain remains unbearable.
I cannot have closure while my child is still missing,” she said. She has lost hope of finding Lusanele alive. Her only wish now, she says, is to recover his remains.
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“It is only my child who is still missing. I hope God will soon make us find his bones,” she said. A grave has already been prepared for Lusanele at the family burial site in Tabase, between the graves of his father and brother.
“He has a space waiting for him,” she said quietly. She survived the floods after being swept about 6km downstream by raging waters, managing to swim out and cling to a tree for hours before she was rescued.
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