“For them, it's cheaper than going to Europe”: in southern Africa, a ski slope tries to survive in the face of drought

Le forfait pour skier coûte 60 euros. Arco Images – F. Scholz

"J'avais trop envie de skier en Afrique", jubile une touriste éthiopienne casquée sur la seule piste du sud du continent, une bande d'un kilomètre de poudre artificielle qui se découpe sur fond de montagnes pelées et brûnatres à plus de 3 000 mètres au Lesotho.

But this little paradise for those who want to take up sculling, surfing, or simply seeing and touching snow, is threatened by prohibitive costs, particularly for producing this white gold during a drought.

Sharon Kadangwe, a 29-year-old artistic director who came from Malawi with her mother, has her bust bent and her legs bent, hyper-concentrated as she comes out of the ski lift. “It's exhilarating and a little stressful, like the first time I rode a bike or swam. The first lessons are terrible, then you find a rhythm and it becomes fun", she confides in a pink jumpsuit to AFP.

This rare pleasure attracts visitors from all over the continent, but mainly from neighbouring South Africa, during the southern winter, from June to August. Afriski ski resort has resumed operations this year, after being forced to close last year due to power cuts and other logistical issues.

“This is where I learned to ski”

The resort, which opened in 2002 in the Maluti Mountains (northeast), can the absence of snowfall, except for a few weeks a year, operate thanks to the cannons and negative temperatures.

“This is where I learned to ski. I would love to try somewhere else one day abroad but I grew up in this region”, says Bianca Rentzke, a 29-year-old South African entrepreneur who has been going to the "station" since she was 11. The instructors come from France and the United States, but Afriski targets local customers.

"For them, it's cheaper than going to Europe", explains manager Puseletso Mahlakajoe, who heads up some 200 employees. “This place is magical, even though we only have a small hill here”, enthuses Shayne Murray, director of the ski school, over a background of pop music playing at full volume.

60 € per ski pass 

Around him, day visitors, in T-shirts or down jackets, sip a beer on a terrace or take selfies under a capricious sun. The day pass costs the equivalent of 60 euros, a sum for the region. The water to supply the cannons comes from eight nearby reservoirs.

But no one seems particularly concerned about the environmental cost of such an operation, while the region has been suffering from a severe drought linked to the El Nino phenomenon for several months. But the operating costs are high, the manager points out, especially since the operation cannot rely on any external financing.

“We have to make sure that our business operates autonomously, and that is sometimes where the problem lies”, says Ms. Mahlakajoe. “Electricity is very expensive. Some months we can't pay our bill because we haven't made enough money”.

Looking for sponsors

Afriski has been able to get back on its feet after the Covid pandemic, but the only other ski resort in the region, Tiffindel in South Africa, was forced to close its doors this year.

In the off-season, Afriski hosts conferences and team training courses to make ends meet, says its managing director, Theo Ferreira. The business is currently stable. But "it would probably be good to find some sponsors", he told AFP.