Caroline Makubule has been sitting on a mattress at a relative's house for days now as she helplessly waits for news on the whereabouts of her husband Sipho, who was swept away by floods last month.

She did not move an inch when the Sowetan team and Mpumalanga premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane visited the home on Monday. She covered her face with a scarf and wept silently...