'Don't leave us, we're dying'

A Mozambican policeman whips a pregnant mother and her tiny baby. The tiny tot howls in agony as the woman tries frantically to fend off the attacker.

A South African medical doctor lunges forward and positions herself between the policeman and the woman and her wailing child.

Hundreds others plead with the medic for help as policemen continue to lash them with canes and sjamboks.

With temperatures soaring and tempers flaring, police are trying to control the growing crowd of people clamouring for food aid after word spread that yesterday would be the last day that South African humanitarian aid organisation Gift of the Givers and the SA National Defence Force would be distributing food parcels and water.

For nearly two weeks, the South Africans have been handing out food aid and medical supplies to thousands of people displaced by floods.

Screaming, people surge towards the Gift of the Givers' truck as queues slowly move to the water point.

"Please don't leave us ... Don't abandon us ... Give us something ... We're dying," screamed a mother.

People attack each other. They grab bags of maize meal and rice from the elderly. Sacks are ripped open, spilling their contents on the ground.

"It's the politics of hunger," says South African military medic Lieutenant-Colonel Keitumetse Ruiters.

Saying she is heartbroken at people' s desperation for food and water, Ruiters says she is glad she has come.

"But this is a complex situation ... There are forces here that we're not even aware of ... Some people are getting aid while others will remain hungry," she says.