Ann Eveleth
The development hopes of a poor rural community bordering the lucrative Sabi Sands game reserve have been delayed by bickering between conservationists vying for a slice of the community’s untapped treasure.
The tiny community of Huntington in the fractious Bushbuckridge region in Mpumalanga plans to meet this weekend in an ongoing bid to decide the fate of its richest resource: about 500ha of prime ecotourism land under its jurisdiction.
Desperate for development, Huntington’s choices are difficult: two companies linked to Sabi Sands landowners are competing for the right to turn about a third of the community’s tribal trust land into a lucrative extension of the region’s ecotourism industry. One has also promised an airport, but delivery on this has been awaited for at least eight years.
The other is led by young developers with no proven track record, whose proposal may also put the community at odds with its neighbours.
Both developers claim they want the best for the community, but neither seems capable of reaching a compromise. In the meantime, the land remains underutilised and firewood collectors are walking away with its potential every day.
Rural Ventures, a company linked through its membership to Londolozi Game Lodge and its highly regarded operator, Conservation Corporation Africa, wants to expand Sabi Sands westwards by moving the existing game fence and turning the coveted piece of land into a “big-five” reserve.
The company has also promised to build an airport next to the village and wants to put a game lodge on the eastern strip next to Sabi Sands. Both, Rural Ventures says, will be owned and eventually run by the community.
Shangaan-Shiluba, the second company, is linked through its membership to the More Family Trust, which owns a different piece of the Sabi Sands. It wants to build a Shangaan cultural village on the Huntington community’s land. It has promised the community part-ownership, continued access to the land and at least 55 jobs.
Abednigo Khoza, chair of the local reconstruction and development committee, says the community has been waiting for a long time for the promised airport. “On the way somehow we came across a problem because the funders are different for the airport and the cultural village. It seems they are fighting for the same piece of land. That’s how we have experienced delays.”
Rural Ventures’s representative, Allan Taylor, says the airport plans, first punted in 1990, have been delayed by the ownership quagmire affecting tribal land and by difficulties in obtaining consensus in a divided community.
“Subsequently we decided to shift the airport from the eastern section of Huntington to the middle to allow the eastern side to be used for a game reserve. But this raised the cost of the airport, required a whole new set of surveys, and caused further delays,” says Taylor.
Community members say the arrival of surveyors and engineers in recent weeks has convinced them the airport will finally materialise. But they were not so certain when the issue derailed a tribal meeting in January.
That meeting was expected to vote on the cultural village proposal put to the community by James Delaney and Rob More of Shangaan-Shiluba. Their company wants to lease 442ha of Huntington’s eastern land to build a cultural village with soft game overlooking the natural landscape leading to Sabi Sands.
“We agreed on a consultation process with the Department of Land Affairs, and everything was going well until the airport people pitched up at the final meeting,” says Delaney. “Now the community are afraid that if they let us go ahead, they’ll lose the airport.”
Not so, says Taylor. “The airport is going ahead, but [Shangaan-Shiluba] want me to give them a letter saying I’ve moved the airport west so they can go ahead with their project on the eastern section. I think that land is better used for a game reserve.”
But, says Delaney, the community has rejected at least four proposals to turn the land into a game reserve. He thinks Rural Ventures is stalling until its competitors give up and the community will be forced to accept a game reserve.
Taylor admits the community is “worried they’ll lose the land forever” if the fence is moved. But he argues that the community is “waiting for me to deliver the airport first”.
Khoza partly agrees. “We want to see the airport. But I don’t think the community will agree to a game reserve. We are adjacent to Skukuza and the people are still claiming their land there. The community is against moving the fence. But this weekend we will meet to decide between the game reserve and the cultural village,” he says.
Complicating matters are plans by the Hlulani Trust, set up by Huntington with the neighbouring communities of Justicia and Lillydale as joint recipients of a 27ha farm, to build a cultural village as part of the Maputoland strategic development initiative which may compete with Huntington’s plans.