A hippo’s grunt echoes over the vast St Lucia Wetlands. His mate immediately answers the call, and than a chorus of hippo guffaws follows him around the lake.
The hippos are closely linked to the fate of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal. They represent both the park’s past and future. In the past they were icons of the local communities making a simple living on the shores of the lake and they are still a part of just about every folktale told over a campfire at night.
But the hippos also represent the future as more and more tourists stream to the area to hear their guffaws in a unique setting. These tourists bring the promise of financial prosperity to the communities living in this incredible world heritage site.
So far the local communities have not benefited much from the beauty around them. Development failed to touch their lives during the last century and unemployment is rampant. While they may be surrounded by the riches of nature, the region has some of the poorest households in South Africa.
But a new tourism investment announced late last year by Valli Moosa, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, has given these communities new hope. Eight winning bidders were given concessions to develop lodges, self-catering resorts, camping facilities and adventure travel activities in the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park.
The concessions represent a R432-million investment into the 260 000ha park to develop its ecotourism potential.
The new facilities are expected to accommodate between 80 000 and 100 000 guests a year, generating an estimated R300-million a year in direct spending. The investment that will create at least 900 permanent jobs in the area is part of the government’s Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (SDI), created to put an end to the paradox of poverty amid the bounty of nature in areas and to boost economic development.
Ecotourism was identified as one of the main investment initiatives for the Lubombo SDI, to build on the potential of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park as a top-class tourism destination. The government drafted a policy to ensure that for the first time the locals will also reap the vast potential benefits of ecotourism.
Shunted around and passed over in the apartheid years in the name of protecting the environment, it is understandable that some of these communities harbour strong, antagonistic feelings towards conservation in St Lucia.
The park has a long history of sorrowful accounts about locals being abused by past governments. Locals living inside the park were cleared out from the 1950s to the 1970s. At one stage after the 1994 democratic elections, 100% of the park was claimed by communities evicted during apartheid. Today 60% of the claims have been settled, including three major land claims.
One settled claim involves the Bhangazi community. They received financial compensation totalling R16,68-million from the government when their restitution claim was settled in 1999. About 550 registered Bhangazis were handed R30 000 each as part of the claim. The community was also granted access to 5ha of land within the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Par for burial and ancestor ceremonies.
Ephraim Mteka, chairperson of the Bhangazi Community Trust, says the community is happy about the benefits it has reaped so far. Already the community is collecting 70% of the gate levies, but once the concessions in its area are up and running it will receive an even bigger income.
‘We want to use the money to send our youngsters to university,” he says. ‘Tourism in the area has given us a lifeline and opened up new job opportunities.”
The community had to decide whether they wanted to receive their land back, or opt for financial compensation. In the end only 8% voted for land, while the rest chose a financial package. ‘The government convinced the community they would be better off to take the money than access to the land,” says Mteka.
The idea is to get communities passionate about the environment by empowering them, says Andrew Zaloumis, CEO of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Parks Authority. ‘Conservation must accommodate communities,” he says.
Zaloumis’s job is filled with minefields, and the balance between the environment and controlled development is not always easy to maintain. He is confronted daily with lobbyists who want to keep the park development-free, while other parties are hammering on about economic development for the region.
‘Conservation is not only about conserving the environment,” he says. ‘There are people living within the environment and you have to help them as well. If you do not include your communities in conservation, you will pick up trouble.”
The St Lucia area is rich in titanium deposits and in the late 1980s Richards Bay Minerals planned to mine the dunes on the eastern shores. Proponents of the mining said it would have sparked economic development in the underdeveloped region and create much-needed jobs.
But after an intensive investigation, which included fierce lobbying by environmentalists such as Ian Player and Zaloumis’s father, Nolly Zaloumis, the new government turned down the company’s mining application.
Zaloumis is the first to admit that the ecotourism alternative chosen by the government has not always delivered. Development in St Lucia has come at a slow pace. After the decision not to mine, the local communities looked forward to the benefits ecotourism would bring to them. But nothing happened in the area until late 1998.
The mid-1990s saw a negative growth rate in regional tourism around the wetland park. ‘At least 22 major tourism projects remained stalled by a maze of red tape, bureaucracy and local dynamics,” says Zaloumis.
In 1999 the pristine wetland with its biological wealth became South Africa’s first world heritage site. The same year South Africa passed legislation that balanced the need to conserve the country’s world heritage with an obligation to optimise poverty-alleviating development.
In 2000 the integrated Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park, stretching over 300 000ha and 230km, came into being. A dedicated management authority was appointed by Valli Moosa to manage the site according to the World Heritage Convention Act and the United Nations World Heritage Convention. The authority is chaired by Mavuso Msimang, former CEO of South African National Parks.
‘Local people and traditional leadership living in or adjacent to the wetlands area are fully represented on the authority and are included in the highest decision-making,” says Zaloumis.
He says a major objective of the wetlands authority is to ensure that the world heritage site is developed in a way that ensures local residents benefit from the park and have access to it. ‘The authority does not seek to develop and operate tourism in the park, but rather to optimise and regulate private and community sector-driven development.”
The authority regulates conservation, but has contracted the day-to-day conservation management of the park to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the provincial conservation authority.
A special division of the wetland authority, called the social, environmental and economic development division, is tasked with empowerment activities in the park, which include ownership, job creation, procurement and training.
The wetland authority aims to expand the tourism market, attract new investment to a range of lodges and hotels, and to create opportunities for new nature activities. These new ventures will stimulate economic growth and help the park to become self-reliant.
At the moment the park needs at least R54-million a year just to keep going, without consideration of new projects. Zaloumis has been running the park on grants and donations from benefactors, without creating any debt. The estimated R300-million the new investments will generate will go a long way to making the park self-sustainable.
New investments, however, do not mean money will triumph over conservation, Zaloumis is quick to point out. The new ventures will have to conform to strict environmental guidelines through an integrated management plan. The area will not be over-exploited and the universal values of the wetlands will be strongly conserved, he adds.
‘We are extremely strict with our concessionaires,” he says. ‘We have structured the developments in clusters to ensure there is minimum impact on the environment. We identified several sites and in the end identified eight likely spots that would not be degraded.”
The authority established certain non-negotiable criteria during the bidding process for the concessions. It appointed an evaluation panel consisting of representatives from South African National Parks, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and the wetland authority’s board.
The bids had to be environmentally sustainable. The panel examined each site’s commercial sustainability and operational expertise carefully, giving attention to the uniqueness of each development. It also focused strongly on empowerment considerations such as equity participation, job creation and procurement with the focus on the participation of local communities. A minimum financial return to the park had to be guaranteed.
The concessionaires will have to use emerging contractors from the Bhangazi community as contractors, while they will have to train members of the community in the hospitality business.
Each concessionaire has a certain concession period inside the park, the shortest period being 15 years and the longest 30 years. After the period expires, the concessionaire will have to re-apply for the concession and compete with other bidders, says Zaloumis. A new tender process will take place and all the players will be re-evaluated.
The concessionaires must comply with strict rules regarding the environment and their operations. These include activities such as driving on the beach and the use of water. If they break these rules, they face heavy fines or penalties, and repeated bad behaviour could lead to them being kicked out of the park.
Critics such as the Beach Action Committee of South Africa (Bacsa), an organisation that says it represents beach users, have raised concerns that the new developments will have a severe impact on the environment. But Zaloumis says the sites selected were carefully screened for possible environmental fatal flaws.
‘Environmental sensitivities were identified and assessed, and development concepts were formulated for each site,” he says. These concepts were used as a basis for determining what is feasible on each site, within what environmental parameters. The final environmental impact assessments (EIAs) will have to be done by the developers themselves.
‘It is anticipated that the winning bidders will begin their EIAs in March 2004 after the final design has been approved by the wetlands authority,” says Zaloumis.
At the 2003 World Parks Congress hosted in Durban, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation hailed the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park as a model of protected area management that balances conservation and development in a sustainable development framework.
But Zaloumis says this does not mean he has any time to rest on his laurels. ‘Of course we have not gotten everything right. There are still serious questions to be asked about [ecotourism] capacity. That is our biggest challenge: to get the capacity handling of St Lucia right.”
He says the government has made a commitment to show that nature-based tourism can be more beneficial than mining or smokestack industry and can promote a natural form of wealth distribution.
It is encouraging to observe the optimism among local communities, Zaloumis adds. ‘But you have to remember if the communities do not benefit from ecotourism inside the park, the issue of mining and jobs will definitely pop up again.”
Not everyone is happy with the investment. Bacsa believes the ban on 4x4s on the beaches is an indication that in future the park will only be the playground for the rich. Zaloumis just smiles at the claim. ‘Part of the concession rules are that the developers have ensured access for local tourists,” he says. Campsites, self-catering facilities and even day-visitor facilities will ensure that average South Africans and their families will never be unwelcome in the park.
‘The days of exclusion are over. This is a world heritage park that is being made, in the truest sense, open and available to local and international tourists as a people’s park.”
Sites and winning bids:
IL Leisure
One of the few true black economic empowerment (BEE) owner-operators in the leisure industry, IL Leisure prides itself on being a 100% BEE company. Its management has previously been involved in the establishment of game lodge operations in sub-Saharan Africa with the likes of Conservation Corporation Africa, among others.
Lubombo Hotels
This consortium has a 95% BEE ownership. The majority shareholder is a KwaZulu-Natal company, Uthungulu Resorts and Leisure, which is involved in the Sun Coast Casino.
Akani Leisure
Akani Leisure, a 100% BEE company, has entered into a joint venture agreement with Three Cities Hotels, with the aim of developing a 100% BEE hotel-operating company within five years. Three Cities Hotels currently runs city hotels as well as lodges in the Sabi and Welgevonden reserves and is pursuing interests in other parts of Africa.
Wilderness Safaris
Wilderness Safaris is a reputable operator in the lodge industry in Africa. The company is expanding rapidly in South Africa and currently operates another facility in the area.
Halcyon Hotels
For the St Lucia bid, Halcyon Hotels entered into a partnership with a KwaZulu-Natal-based BEE investment company, Mion Investments. The Halcyon group has operations in Tanzania and currently has the lease for the Bay Hotel in Cape Town. Halcyon Hotels was recently awarded bids for the Roundhouse and Koel Baai hotels, as well as the management contract for Imbali in Port Zimbali.
aManzinyama Lake Site
Type of facility: 24-bed eco-lodge
Company: IL Leisure
Economic benefits: The lodge will create 45 jobs and IL Leisure has set targets in the region of 48% for BEE (black economic empowerment) procurement during the life of the concession. The projected concession fees are estimated to be R17-million
Concession period: 15 years
Ndlozi A& B
Type of facility: A 50-bed and a 10-bed facility are planned for two different sites at Ndlozi
Company: Akani Leisure
Economic benefits: The two sites will employ 89 people jointly. The projected concession fees are R61-million. BEE procurement targets have been set at 50%
Concession period: 20 years
Perrier’s Rock Beach Site
Type of facility: 32 upmarket beds
Company: Halcyon Hotels
Economic benefits: The concession will create 81 direct jobs. The projected concession fees are R4-million
Concession period: 20 years
Bhanga Nek Beach Site
Type of facility: A 74-bed facility that caters specifically for the mid-range South African family market
Company: Wilderness Safaris
Economic Benefits: About 87 jobs will be created at the facility. The projected concession fees are R29-million
Concession period: 15 years
Bhangazi Lake Site
Type of Facility: 50-bed boutique facility
Company: IL Leisure
Economic benefits: The resort will employ 99 people and will try to achieve 48% BEE procurement. The projected concession fees are estimated to be R66-million
Concession period: 15 years
eNkovukeni Lake Site
Type of facility: 12-bed upmarket resort
Company: Wilderness Safaris
Economic benefits: The resort will create 22 direct jobs. The projected concession fees are estimated to be R4-million
Concession period: 15 years
Cape Vidal Beach Site
Type of facility: The site is geared to easy public access and a combination of camping, two- and five-star accommodation, as well as day-visitor facilities will be offered. Cape Vidal currently has 527 self-catering chalets and campsites, which the concessionaire will upgrade to include in the total bed count of 600
Company: Lubombo Hotels (Hyatt International has been contracted to operate the facility)
Economic benefits: About 500 people will be employed at the site and the new concessionaire will also take charge of existing staff and reservations. BEE procurement targets have been set at 50%. The projected concession fees are estimated to be R258-million
Concession period: 30 years