For many years, during apartheid, the Ndumo Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal was an area the local Mathenjwa community avoided, a place that held the animals they were not privileged enough to enjoy. The area seemed a wasteland to them, one that represented potential farmland the poverty-stricken community was forbidden to use.
The community, the parks and the old government were constantly fighting about the land, and it was the community that lost out most of the time.
But, when the Ndumo Wilderness Camp was erected in 1995, the community gained a stake in the wildlife that previously had held no interest for them. Now the community owns a share in the luxury camp and receives 26% of the revenue generated from the camp. Their former arch-enemy, the park’s authorities, are now their partners and they have gained a valuable private partner in Wilderness Safaris, which operates the camp and leases the lodge from the community and the park.
Ndumo lies in northern KwaZulu-Natal just south of Mozambique and boasts the Nyamithi and Banzi Pans, which house large numbers of wildlife such as rhino and hippo. The reserve’s big attraction is its birdlife, including the rare Pel’s fishing owl.
The Ndumo Wilderness Camp is in the ‘wilderness” zone of the reserve, which means the area is not open to the general public. It offers eight superbly appointed tented rooms which are raised off the ground to rest beneath a ceiling of giant fig trees.
The partnership between Wilderness Safaris, the Mathenjwa community, the park’s authorities and the private sector is a solid and functioning operation. The park and the community, with assistance from a bank, jointly own the lodge.
Just a short hop away on the coast, Rocktail Bay Lodge has also become a model of sustainable tourism. In a pristine part of South Africa’s coastline, the lodge offers snorkelling and a chance for tourists to enjoy a unique sea holiday. Rocktail Bay Lodge lies within a World Heritage site.
The lodge is co-owned by a commercial bank, the KwaZulu-Natal conservation agency, and the neighbouring community, the Mqobela. The camp is also operated by Wilderness Safaris in conjunction with the community. At Rocktail Bay Lodge, the community owns an even larger share than at Ndumo, 36%.
Agreement has been reached with the Africa Foundation, which facilitates the development of communities living next to conservation areas, with the backing of Wilderness Safaris, to secure an interest-free loan to increase the share of Mqobela Trust in the Rocktail Bay Lodge to 49%.
The Mqobela community is situated on communal land in a traditional authority ward administered by the Tembe Tribal Authority. The Mqobela ward comprises about 290 homesteads.
Wilderness Safaris currently operates 45 camps and lodges in seven southern African countries. The company’s core philosophy is to set up meaningful partnerships through which to empower local communities and they are striving to introduce these principles at as many of their camps as possible.
In the case of Ndumo and Rocktail Bay, it has invested in a community-private-public-partnership in which both local residents and the park authority are shareholders in the company’s lodges and derive income from the tourists who visit.
‘It is our mission not only to promote the conservation ideals of the dedicated wildlife professionals we employ, but also to promote and showcase local culture in the vicinity of our reserves and lodges,” says Malcolm McCullogh, CEO of Wilderness Safaris. ‘We recognised many years ago that communities who live in, or border on, wildlife areas have key conservation roles and inalienable rights.”
He says restoration and development of wildlife and wild resources are intimately tied to community benefit, poverty reduction and economic growth.
‘We get incredible satisfaction from being part of South Africa’s first successful community, parks and private sector partnership in Ndumo, an old game reserve,” he says. ‘There is much optimism for the new South Africa if the Ndumo partnership remains successful, as all parties were historically at each other’s throats.”
In the past few years, the company has been awarded a host of citations for its ‘responsible tourism” initiatives and policies. These include the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, the South African Fedhasa Imvelo Awards in 2002 for Best Community Involvement Programme, and the Legacy Award in 2003.
What makes the partnership between Wilderness Safaris and the communities surrounding its lodges so unique is that the company is not merely donating books to the local schools or helping with the renovation of clinics. The partnership actually gives these communities a financial stake in each lodge, ensuring that they benefit directly from the ecotourism operations on their doorsteps.
The partnerships with the Mathenjwa and Mqobela communities in Maputaland are flourishing and showing the local people that the environment can give them a sustainable income. Last year, the communities received more than R1-million through salaries and shares in the lodges.
‘Continued tourism operations by our company are dependant not only on visible conservation efforts, but are also inextricably linked to the more subtle and complex task of restoring and respecting the culture of Maputaland’s indigenous people,” says McCulloch.
The Maputaland region is populated by Zulu-speaking people who trace their roots back to the Nguni and Thonga nations. Farming with subsistence crops and cattle is the main means of surviving in the lush but harsh conditions of the region, while some communities have developed intricate fishing techniques. Unemployment is rife and most of the men work far away in the cities to provide for their families.
But ecotourism represents a new opportunity to these communities to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty and to create jobs on their doorstep. More ecotourism activities are planned for the area and many of these new developments include local people as stakeholders in their business plans.
In each camp, the community participates in decision-making through a development trust that elects two members as directors of the development company. The community’s share of the tourism dividends is paid into the trust, to which they can then apply for funds for their own projects.
Most of the funds go towards empowering the youth of the community so that they can plough back the investment later on, says Simon Mntambo, the assistant manager at Rocktail Bay Lodge. Mntambo is a member of the trust, who helps to decide where the money generated from the lodge is spent.
‘Most of it goes towards sending our kids to university or for other educational purposes,” he says. In the beginning, loans were granted to members who wanted to fix their houses, but the trustees soon realised the money could be better spent by educating the community’s children.
But the community still believes it is the government’s responsibility to look after the school or to provide health care, so they are reluctant to spend their money on improving infrastructure.
‘Often tourists visiting Rocktail Bay want to see what the money has done for the community,” says Bheki Mhembu, a guide at Rocktail Bay. ‘It is difficult because you cannot always show them straightforward results.”
Also, not everyone in the community is aware or understands how the trust works. ‘We need to educate people more about the benefits,” says Mntambo. But, he says, the partnership has already made a big difference to the community as a whole, as well as improving environmental practices among his people.
The creation of jobs is one of the most tangible results ecotourism brings for the Maputaland people. Of the 45 employees at Rocktail Bay Lodge, 32 originate from the local community. Their salaries support 31 homesteads and, indirectly, about 170 people.
The Mqobela also generate additional income with tourist entertainments such as choirs and dance groups, the sampling of local cuisine at one of their homes, home-based craft production, and storytelling drawn from their rich cultural history.
Apart from the stake they hold in Rocktail Bay Lodge, a number of other opportunities have also been created for locals. These include a local taxi operator contracted to ferry employees to and from work, casual labour for routine maintenance work, the provision of local arts to the craft shop, and the running of community tours and hippo-viewing trips. The community also provides fishing guides for guests.
At Ndumo, the lodge arranges trips to the local Mathenjwa community, the co-owners of the Ndumo Camp. The trip includes performances by local children and a rare glimpse of a tribal dance rehearsal. Guests may also consult a local sangoma, if they wish to do so, or watch locals fishing according to traditional methods.
Jonson Mlambo, a manager at Ndumo who is also the son of the local sangoma, says overseas tourists love the chance to get to know the ‘real Africa”.
‘My father is quite the hit these days,” he laughs. ‘Another popular activity is to pick a family and spend the day with them, including contributing to their daily chores.”
The Strauss family from America recently went on such a trip. ‘I loved it,” says Alison Strauss. ‘It gave you real insight into these people’s lives. It is so different from your own daily life. Africa is not only about animals, but people as well.”
The Strauss men opted to go fishing with a local guide, while the women helped cook a traditional African meal.
‘There was a time in the not too distant past when game reserves were the playgrounds of the rich and towering electric fences kept the ‘haves’ shielded from the indigenous people who could truly claim the land,” says McCulloch. ‘But now the communities are part of the whole process.”
Another initiative that has created additional jobs is the beach-cleaning operation, which also educates villagers about the environment. Six people from the village are employed as part of the government’s coastal care project.
Turtles are a big draw-card of Maputaland. Each year loggerhead and leatherback turtles make their way up beaches to lay their eggs. Before Rocktail Bay Lodge began educating the local community about turtles, they viewed these eggs as a food supplement for their cattle or as a cure for HIV/Aids.
Now, however, the community regard the turtles as an asset and they’ve become very protective about these sea creatures. They even guard the turtles, so now these endangered species are experiencing a population boom. During the breeding season, community turtle scouts patrol the beaches on the lookout for turtles to ensure they are not threatened when they come onto the beach to lay their eggs. Wilderness Safaris pays the wages of these seasonal turtle scouts.
More and more lodges are springing up in Maputaland. Where they are located inside parks, such as the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, they are required to include local communities. Some of the concessions in this park are on restituted land, which gives the community a big stake in ecotourism.
The days are gone when fences and fines separated local communities from the benefits of tourism. Now they are finally getting what they have been due in the past.
Jonson Mlambo: From sangoma’s assistant to manager at Ndumo Wilderness Camp:
Mlambo grew up as the son of a sangoma in the Mathenjwa community bordering the Ndumo Game Reserve. He quickly became an expert in the fauna and flora of the area as a result of helping his father gather stock for his potions.
‘I used to shoot the birds to eat them or to help my father and so I learned their names quite well,” he says. In the bird-rich area of Ndumo he quickly gathered quite a database of the different birds.
In 1995, when the Ndumo Wilderness Camp was built, he applied for a job and went through a training programme. The lodge organisers quickly identified him as a worthy guide, thanks to his intricate knowledge of the area.
He has been with the lodge from the start and says it has given him many opportunities to see the world. He has been to Botswana and Zimbabwe which, he says, has made him a better guide.
He believes the partnership is making a huge difference to his community, but ‘the community needs to be educated more about the benefits. Not everyone is aware of what is happening. Some of them still feel excluded.”
Bheki Mhembu: From an East Rand Wimpy to a guide at Rocktail Bay Lodge:
The pace of life in the Mqobela village is slow. Houses are spread out from one another and tradition still reigns supreme.
Thus, life in the city was a shock for Mhembu. Along with most of the men in his village, he quickly realised that there were not many job opportunities at home, so he traded a calm life for the rat race in Johannesburg.
He worked at a Pizza Hut, a Mugg & Bean, and even a Checkers. But it was during his last job as a Wimpy waiter in the East Rand Mall that he realised his life was passing him by and he had to return to his roots.
With no idea about where his next pay-cheque would come from, he returned to Maputaland and, in 1999, won a job at Rocktail Bay Lodge to do renovations. While working on this, a friend of his former employer at the Wimpy recognised him and told the Rocktail Bay management what a good worker he was.
He was promoted to barman, but he believed that he could do even better. The former Wimpy waiter started reading up about the birds and the trees he had known since he was a child and his diligence was rewarded when he became a guide.
He now lives with his wife, two children and his mother in a house in the village.
‘My mother is very happy,” he says, with sadness. ‘My brother worked at another Wimpy on the East Rand and he was shot in a robbery. She does not like that place.”
Mhembu loves bringing tourists to his village, and he says the lodge has benefited many people. ‘But more needs to be done. Some of the village people still do not understand what is happening.”
As he drives among the well-built houses in his village, he sighs. ‘Most of the people who paid for the houses are not here to appreciate them. They work in Johannesburg. There are no jobs here.”
Rocktail Bay Lodge
The first glimpse you get of Rocktail Bay is simply breathtaking. Over a hilltop, you catch sight of softly rolling waves, washing on to a serene white beach. There is hardly another soul in sight, except for the solitary figure of a fellow guest strolling down the 12km-long white beach.
South Africans love the ocean, but they’ve become accustomed to fighting it out with hundreds of other beachcombers for their little place in the sun. If the beach has any aesthetic value, it is often be overrun by screaming kids and suntanned bodies.
Not so at Rocktail Bay beach. Here guests only compete for space with the huge turtles coming up the beach in the summer to lay their eggs. There is no easy way to gain access to the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast, and the wildness of the area has ensured that it remains one of the jewels in South Africa’s crown.
If you’re penny-pinching, you can camp at Mabibi, a little south of Rocktail Bay. But if you’re feeling indulgent, Rocktail Bay Lodge will spoil you rotten with exquisite cuisine, superb service and little extras like a glass of Amarula for a welcoming present and a hot water bottle at night in the winter.
Rates: January 1 to April 30 and October 1 to December 31, R2 140 per person sharing; May 1 to September 30, R1 780 per person sharing.
South Africans can contact the Wilderness Safaris Sandton office to find out more about the lodges and to make reservations:
Tel: 011 883 0747, Fax: 011 883 0911, Email: [email protected]
Ndumo Wilderness Camp
When birders die and go to heaven, they go to Ndumo Game Reserve. And if they’ve been really good, they stay at Ndumo Wilderness Camp.
Without much effort, visitors are treated to the most abundant birdlife they will ever encounter. Goliath herons and pied kingfishers live a peaceful life at the edge of scenic Banzi Pan where the camp is situated, while African jacanas add to the sounds of the wild.
The tents in which patrons stay are a real treat. When the night is clear, the stars are so bright you don’t even need a torch to find your way around. The howls of a lonesome hyena in the early hours of the morning make a refreshing change from the four o’clock sirens in the city. And if you’re wondering whether you’ll need an alarm clock to wake up for the early morning drive, the trills of the warblers will ensure you are not late for your coffee.
Downstream, the hippos guffaw as they glare at the crocodiles. If you are a reptile lover, the Banzi pan is the place to be. Apart from the 25 crocodiles we spotted downstream, we also saw a croc stalk a saddle-billed stork.
Activities centre around boat trips and game drives and the guides are experts in ornithology. Guides Jonson Mlambo and James Mhembu both have sharp eyes that will spot a pied kingfisher among the reeds with no trouble at all.
Rates: January 1 to December 31, R1 680 per person sharing
Contact: Wilderness Safaris Sandton office to find out more about the lodges and to make reservations. Tel: 011 883-0747; Fax: 011 883 0911; Email: [email protected]