ABSTRACT
The colonial capitalist economic policies of introducing monetary economies to raise income from taxes, together with the encouragement of a switch from traditional food crops to cash crops for export, it was argued, disrupted traditional drought management strategies by removing food and livestock as exchange commodities and the basis for traditional kinship ties. Drought in South Africa in 1991-1992 saw the creation of a National Consultative Forum on Drought consisting of representatives from 'churches, civic organizations, liberation movements, unions, businesses, non-governmental organizations, homeland governments, welfare organizations, and the South African governments'. By contrast, Texan cattlemen welcomed the drought as helping to remove the threat of 'nesters'. In the 1980s increasing concerns about claims of drought occurrence and potential misuse of Australian public drought relief funds led to an official enquiry which reported in 1989. Experience of drought management has been no better in the USA.
