President Cyril Ramaphosa has had to retrench over 20 workers in one of his farms due to foot-and-mouth disease and bad trading conditions.

Ramaphosa drove to his Ntabanyoni farm in Badplaas, Mpumalanga, himself last month to deliver the bad news to the workers. He told them that 22 out of 46 full-time employees at the farm were to lose their jobs.

The news, which Ramaphosa delivered on the morning of October 25, left many of the workers devastated. Some of them are now appealing on the president "to find ways" to help them feed their families.

The job losses came at a time when Ramaphosa is on a drive to attract investment and create jobs for millions of unemployed South Africans. Reducing unemployment has become one of the key priorities of his administration.

But for Aaron Mokoena and many of his retrenched colleagues, unemployment is now a reality.

Mokoena told Sowetan that the move came as a shock to them and things were going to be harder going into the festive season.

"This is the worst Christmas ever where one will have to live as an unemployed person.

"You know the President came himself, he told us all that we are going to be retrenched and that was a shock as names were called. For me it's hard because there are 11 people who depend on me, it was very hard to go home and tell my family that I'm jobless," said Mokoena.