A SOUTH AFRICAN air force rescue team saved a Mozambican baby from certain death just an hour after she was born on Wednesday in a tree where her mother was perched over floodwaters. Sophia Pedro, 22, and her baby daughter Rositha, were among the few lucky ones. An AFP reporter witnessed the rescue of Rositha, whose mother was clinging with about a dozen women, men and children to a tree in Mondiane village on the outskirts of Chibuto town. A South African paramedic, who gave his name as Godfrey, said he chopped off the placenta. “I was overjoyed when I saw the helicopter coming,” said Sophia, who was visibly still in pain but happily cuddled her daughter in dirty and blood-soiled linen. The conical grass-thatch roofs of huts poking up from muddy waters were all that could be seen of what used to be fields and villages between Maputo and Chiputo. Atop some of the roofs were not only people desperately waving to any aircraft that flew past, but also small animals such as dogs and goats.