"The man was fishing on Friday afternoon when the hippo attacked him," spokesperson Macks Lesufi said.
"When he was rescued, he was badly injured."
Dashi Makhuvele fought tooth and nail with the large animal when it attacked him at Makuleke dam while fishing.
Following his ordeal, the 34-year-old man survived to tell the tale but due to the nature of his injuries he died in hospital on Sunday.
The Daily Sun reportedly spoke to him while in hospital and he told the paper that during his scuffle with the hippo it bit him on the hip and groin.
"I knew my life was in danger and I fought the hippo like a warrior. I beat the beast repeatedly in the eyes with my fists. It let go of me but it had ripped open some of the flesh on my hip and groin. Somehow I managed to get to dry ground," he said.
Makhuvele was spotted by a friend who called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital for treatment.
Source: South African Press Association
banks of the great gray-green, greasy Limpopo River all set about with fever trees . . . . (The Elephant's Child)
So, what is it that sets some animals in a rage apart from their normal behavior? There have always been attacks from wild animals. But an uptick has to indicate something going on -- earth vibrations, high pitched sounds we can't hear, changes in the magnetic field? Something driving them batty?
After the 7.2 earthquake in Calexico on Easter a few years back, I came home to find our dog hunkered down in fear in the dark laundry room. Took some time to get her out and feeling her happy-go-lucky self again.
The animals must be feeling something that disturbs them.