Period theme parks, a paddle steamer and a cable car are on the cards for Mpumalanga if an investment with the Dolphin Group gets the go-ahead, writes Justin Arenstein
THE international tourism and manufacturing mega-production Dolphin Group, apparently a Saudi Arabia-based corporation, has pledged direct cash investments in excess of R6- billion to the Mpumalanga provincial government.
Although government officials declined to go on the record and confirm the pledge this week, sources report that the group intends to either buy or launch developments in various parts of the province totalling at least R6,3-billion during the first phase of a multi-sector investment drive.
Provincial legislature documents in the possession of African Eye News indicate the pledged investment will be phased in over a six-year period and spread over various sectors of the regional economy, including tourism, manufacturing and a plant to service the motor industry.
A large portion of the proposed initial investment will be in the tourism and travel markets, with the Mpumalanga Parks Board offering their flagship game reserve near Badplaas to the group for a R198-million redevelopment into a White Mischief period theme park.
The investment boost involves an astronomical injection into the regional economy.
Mpumalanga’s annual budget, excluding social programmes, is just more than R4,7-billion and the pledged amount is almost a third of the agricultural sector’s contribution to gross domestic product.
A number of the parks board’s other reserves, including the Loskop Dam and the relatively pristine Blyde River Canyon will also reportedly be offered to the group for development into theme parks, with plans for an American-style paddle steamer on Loskop dam and a cable car down the centre of the Blyde Canyon.
It is unclear whether the offer includes casino rights.
The parks board’s decision to turn its reserves into entertainment style theme parks is based on the fact that the Dolphin Group already manages Kenya’s world famous Masai Mara Reserve successfully and also has vast international expertise in the hotel and resort industry from its other holdings in the east.
The sources stressed, however, that the proposed investments would not just be centred in the province’s parks, but would also focus on other economic sectors where Dolphin already has expertise.
Dolphin currently owns a number of multinational banking operations, a “massive” string of travel agencies and related subsidiaries as well as extensive motor-manufacturing interests.
The group reportedly also has controlling shares in a large European newspaper chain and a series of smaller manufacturing enterprises.
“The planners who set this deal up view the proposed investment, which will exceed the provincial government’s entire annual budget in its final phases, as a way to suck in a series of additional foreign investors by looking at one of the really big guys,” explained the source.
“This big guy will convince smaller guys to invest simply by being in the area and its subsidiaries will also offer the province access to a well-established business infrastructure and marketing machine.”
The planned investment, which a preliminary study suggests could total as much as R10- billion over a six-year period, was initially brokered by parks board chief executive officer, Alan Grey, during a secret visit to London in August.
Grey met with senior Dolphin executives in London after breaking away from a scheduled fundraising tour of south-east Asia.
The executives were reportedly so pleased with the meeting that they then flew Grey to the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya to show him what they were capable of achieving.
A group of Dolphin executives then toured Mpumalanga for one week in October and identified potential investment areas.
Grey is currently in London again, mainly to attend the World Travel Market exhibition, and could not be reached for comment.
Parks board representative Gary Sutter said on Wednesday that he did not have the authorisation to comment about the potential investments.
“Look you obviously have a source but we aren’t prepared to offer any comment at this time. All the details will be released at a press conference on November 27,” he added.
Alan Bernstein, deputy chairman of Conservation Corporation Africa (CCA), told the Mail & Guardian that if the details about the investment pledge were true it would involve a massive boost for the country’s entire tourism industry. CCAis Africa’s biggest nature tourism corporation.
“The single biggest logjam in the development of a sustainable tourism industry in Southern Africa is how quickly we are able to build infrastructure and facilities in Mpumalanga, the wildlife heart of South Africa.”
Bernstein said game lodges in the province were running at full capacity and the lack of accommodation there was acting as a constraint to the expansion of tourism flows into the entire country as most overseas visitors want a wildlife experience during their visit.
Willie Sephton, acting director of conservation in the North West province, welcomed the news, but warned that Mpumalanga might be “selling out”.
“From our experience of this thing we know how easy it is to lose control if the funders are not tied down as tightly as possible,” he said
Peter John Massyn, director of Lodges of Manyeleti, added “An injection of that scale into the regional economy will provide a boost of such a scale that I don’t think a purist approach to environmental impact is appropriate provided certain basic standards are maintained to protect the quality of the resource base.
“I would, however, like to see a commitment in the business plan to prevent the massive leakages of revenue out of the region that characterise these kinds of foreign investment in other parts of the Third World.”