In the context of shifting climatic patterns, drought incidence has notably increased. This research used Landsat multi-temporal data to investigate the efficacy of a recently introduced Temperature-Vegetation Water Stress Index (T-VWSI) in assessing and mapping drought severity across 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2018 within Msinga, South Africa. Initially, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) were derived from Landsat imagery for the specified years. Subsequently, these metrics were employed to formulate the T-VWSI, which was then utilized to identify and spatially represent drought severity. Additionally, the standardized precipitation index (SPI) was computed for the same temporal period to validate the findings drawn from the T-VWSI. The outcomes derived from the T-VWSI revealed that 2016 witnessed the most acute drought event, particularly in the northern reaches of the Msinga region. Analogously, SPI analyses demonstrated that 2016 was characterized by severe aridity, thereby validating the conclusions drawn from the T-VWSI assessments. In summary, this investigation highlights the efficacy of the novel T-VWSI methodology in discerning and cartographically representing drought severity across expansive geographic extents.