“We are helpless now. There is no grass for our animals to feed on or water to drink”: Small-scale farmers are desperate for help from government to save their herds of cattle as drought ravages large parts of South Africa
“In the Northern Cape, government has already allocated drought relief to the value of R30 million, while R50 million has been allocated in the Western Cape,” said Willem Symington, Agri SA’s head of disaster management.
Using one hand, Mongale picks up the lightweight carcass, the animal’s stiff tail jutting out like a mannequin. “Even if I wanted to sell a few of them so I can buy feed and medication, there is no one out there who would buy clearly emaciated cattle. We’re desperate for help as subsistence farmers. We need water and feed to keep these animals alive,” he says.“We are helpless now. There is no grass for our animals to feed on or water to drink,” Leburu says.
“The other problem now is that animals get water from villages and it leads to resources being overburdened and underground water and aquifers getting depleted. There is an urgent need for assistance otherwise we’re heading for the worst crisis where we will soon have carcasses of animals strewn all over the place. If this disaster is allowed to get worse, many families will be robbed of their livelihoods.
Dipepeneneng Serage, North West agriculture’s head of department, said the province’s livestock headcount had drastically declined from about 970 000 in 2012 to around 500 000 after persistent droughts in recent years.
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