Niki Moore
The KwaDapha camp at Kosi Bay where slain academic David Webster lived while he did his anthropological research a monument to the anti-apartheid martyr is again the focus of controversial activities.
Unlawful tourism developments have sprung up next to Webster’s camp, destroying pristine coastal forest.
KwaZulu-Natal wildlife officials are powerless to prevent five Tembe brothers, headed by Simon Tembe, from moving into the area and setting up a commercial forest camp.
“It appears no one has the political will to stop this illegal development,” says Kosi Bay conservator Alex Wood. “These guys got permission from the local tribal authority about six years ago to put up a beach camp.”
But much has changed since then the area has been declared a World Heritage Site. The land falls under the jurisdiction of the Ingonyama Trust but had been placed under a regent until Israel Mabhudu Tembe was crowned chief last month.
The Tembe brothers are not the only “illegal” developers of the area. Large areas of coastal forest have been cleared to create a parking lot, reception, a restaurant and about 20 sites for accommodation. Another “developer” is building a house.
Simon Tembe is reportedly a powerful man in the local tribal authority. It is suspected he used his status on the local tribal council to secure the permission to develop the site.
Tembe does not feel that further permission is necessary. “This land belongs to us. We are the Tembe Royal family and therefore the land is ours. No one can stop us. The whole community and the indunas are behind us. There are other people who are living in the forest and building in the forest. If we must be removed, then all the other people must also be removed.”
Ironically, while interested parties who wish to legally develop the area for tourism are required to satisfy stringent and expensive government requirements, the illegal operators move in and flourish.
A proposed legal development in the same area backed by American developer Stephen Crane went through almost 10 years of applications that included environmental impact assessments and a public participation process. It has still not met all the government requirements.
The Tembe brothers’ illegal development was initiated after the apparent success of an earlier unlawful investment at the KwaDapha camp by Attie van Tonder. The former Pongola policeman took advantage of the discrepancies between tribal law and Western law to become the de facto owner of the camp.
After two years the community camp experienced problems when the three communities who run the camp had a disagreement over profit share. Van Tonder got citizenship of one of the communities and became eligible to run the camp. He has since installed caravan sites and a restaurant. He runs turtle tours in season and employs local people as guides. The KwaDapha community has welcomed the income he has brought.
Van Tonder says he is motivated by pure philanthropy. “I believe I can make a difference to the community. At the moment I am funding the rebuilding of the school, laying water pipes and bringing electricity. There is a very fine line between nature conservation and people conservation; you can’t do one at the expense of the other.”
“If this guy says he is doing it for the community, then we will support him,” says Wood, “but he is going about everything the wrong way. He is installing and building a business development without doing environmental impact assessments, with no PTO [permission to occupy], he does not communicate with any of the other role players”.
The original leader of the KwaDapha development committee, Amos Ngubane, is bitter that leadership of the development has been passed on to the Tembe brothers.
“The community ran this camp as a memorial to David Webster because it was he who helped us stay on the land. The whole idea was to establish a memorial site developed as a local environmental and enterprise support centre, based on local knowledge and sustainable use of the resource base.”
The Tembe brothers have no qualms about building a purely commercial undertaking on protected land.
“We have a right to make money from tourism,” says Simon Tembe. “The government is always saying that we need income from tourism. And yet when we want to start something, they tell us to stop.”
The officer in charge of indigenous forests in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Jabu Mjware, was not available for comment.