AFP, Molatedi :
In the middle of a desiccated lake bed in South Africa’s North West province, a seven-month-old calf is too weak to get up. It is doomed to die from thirst and hunger.
A devastating drought is claiming thousands of livestock in Africa’s most developed economy and prompting many to fear famine.
A few kilometres (miles) away in the district of Madikwe, 30 villagers join Josephine Motsoasele, a traditional healer leading prayers for rain.
In a trance-like manner, farmers and villagers draped in colourful traditional cloths and sing and pray in local vernacular Setswana for the heavens to open up.
“God, give us rain because we have a big problem,” Motsoasele prays, fearing widespread starvation. “We can’t do anything.”
It is not yet noon, but the room temperature has already breached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
The drought, blamed on the global cyclical extreme weather system El Nino, is the country’s worst since 1982.
Located near the border with Botswana, the man-made Molatedi dam is the largest in the province of 3.7 million people. It is now only five percent full.
On the cracked earth, hundreds of cattle wander in search of the last drinking hole or that rare blade of grass.
A drying carcass of a cow lies on the parched ground, carved up by vultures.
According to meat producers, tens of thousands of cattle have died or are being culled due to the drought.
In the middle of a desiccated lake bed in South Africa’s North West province, a seven-month-old calf is too weak to get up. It is doomed to die from thirst and hunger.
A devastating drought is claiming thousands of livestock in Africa’s most developed economy and prompting many to fear famine.
A few kilometres (miles) away in the district of Madikwe, 30 villagers join Josephine Motsoasele, a traditional healer leading prayers for rain.
In a trance-like manner, farmers and villagers draped in colourful traditional cloths and sing and pray in local vernacular Setswana for the heavens to open up.
“God, give us rain because we have a big problem,” Motsoasele prays, fearing widespread starvation. “We can’t do anything.”
It is not yet noon, but the room temperature has already breached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
The drought, blamed on the global cyclical extreme weather system El Nino, is the country’s worst since 1982.
Located near the border with Botswana, the man-made Molatedi dam is the largest in the province of 3.7 million people. It is now only five percent full.
On the cracked earth, hundreds of cattle wander in search of the last drinking hole or that rare blade of grass.
A drying carcass of a cow lies on the parched ground, carved up by vultures.
According to meat producers, tens of thousands of cattle have died or are being culled due to the drought.
