Sharon Hammond
Nature reserves in the former KwaNdebele homeland in Mpumalanga have become lawless badlands where gangs of armed youths attack visitors, poaching flourishes and conservation has collapsed.
Animals are treated so badly that lions have lost their manes, crocodiles are kept in dry sandpits and cattle allowed to graze in protected areas.
Gangs have the run of the Nkombo Dam Nature Reserve near Bronkhorstspruit, where last month two anglers were sprayed with gunfire as they slept in the back of their bakkie. A previous attack by thieves on another group of anglers, who were sleeping in their tents and caravans, forced them to flee into the dam before the thieves stripped the campsite.
“Some guys fishing on the dam heard shouts, and when they shone a torch towards the campsite they saw all these [men] coming out the bush throwing bricks and stones,” explains Eben Dowd, whose friend was caught in the ambush.
Dowd says he had warned the group not to go to the reserve, formerly known as the Renosterkop Dam Nature Reserve, after he had a run-in with aggressive youths who demanded security money from him earlier in the year.
“It’s a mafia-like thing,” says Dowd. “If you don’t pay the guys money to watch your stuff, they’ll rob you.”
The thieving is symptomatic of alleged maladministration at all four reserves in the former homeland, which are not managed by the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) but by the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
Their exclusion from the MPB was agreed to when the four highly unionised reserves – Nkombo, Mdala, SS Skosana and Mabuza – resisted incorporation into the new parastatal five years ago to prevent the retrenchment of hundreds of superfluous personnel. There are still about 500 unskilled workers who no longer go to work because of a lack of transport, but are still being paid.
At Nkombo, gate guards who do arrive for work reportedly charge visitors random entrance fees without issuing receipts. Visitors complain that conservation officials also issue permits for fishing and hunting by scribbling on scraps of paper. The permits are invalid, as only the MPB has the authority to issue them.
Although the MPB does not manage the reserves, it has had to intervene twice at the SS Skosana reserve after poor management led to the starvation of big cats. It had to put down a leopard left to starve in a small cage and a group of starving lions whose manes eventually fell out due to stress. The reserve’s lionesses were relocated.
The SPCA also stepped in recently when members of the public complained that six crocodiles were kept in dried-up pits at SS Skosana’s education centre.
“I had to tell the officials that crocodiles actually need water. They responded by saying they had a poor water supply, but if that was the case, they would move the reptiles,” says the manager of the SPCA’s national wildlife unit, Rick Allan.
He says he was shocked to find that schoolchildren visiting the centre on guided tours had been allowed to throw cans at the reptiles. “If the centre continues to mistreat them, the SPCA will press criminal charges.”
Police are investigating a syndicate of professional hunters who poach wild game at the Nkombo and Mdala reserves. They say the syndicate may be linked to the poaching of four rhinos and a calf in Nkombo three years ago.
“The hunters bribe staff on the ground with portions of meat, and then sell the poached meat in bulk to butchers or private individuals,” explains the investigating officer, Inspector Pierre Badenhorst.
He says poor management at the reserves has made anti-poaching initiatives difficult as damaged or stolen fences are not replaced. The lack of fencing has also enabled communities to graze more than 1 000 head of cattle at Nkombo, which is home to an extremely rare type of veld.
MPB representative Gary Sutter confirms it has received numerous complaints from the public about the reserves. “But we do not have managerial jurisdiction over the KwaNdebele reserves, so it is a matter for the provincial department to investigate.”
Head of department Bandile Mkhize says negotiations are under way with a workers’ union to incorporate the reserves into the MPB. “The problem is what to do with excess staff, because some of them have worked on the reserves for 20 years.”
The department’s co-ordinator of conservation, Danie Brits, says he has not received complaints about gangsterism, bribery and overcharging at the gates, but he will investigate them.
“Visitors to the Nkombo reserve should be warned at the gate, however, not to camp along the dam where it borders villages, because then they will pick up problems,” he adds. – African Eye News Service
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