Red tape trips up young rangers dreams of saving SA s wildlife ’ ’
More than 1,000 rangers employed in an upliftment programme to help curb poaching are working without contracts or remuneration because the environmental affairs department and the National Treasury are at loggerheads.
The programme for environmental monitors, run by the department of environmental affairs and fisheries, was suspended after the Treasury turned down an application to deviate from the existing budget.
A 23-year-old participant, who did not want to be named, said the suspension of the programme came as a shock to the rangers, whose jobs included patrolling nature reserves and combating poaching.
That letter just ended all our “hopes and dreams within a week. Everything that I looked forward to doing came to an abrupt end just like that,” he said.
Another participant, who graduated in nature conservation in 2014 from the Tshwane University of Technology, said he had hoped to gain experience enabling him to get a permanent job.
Everywhere you apply, they tell you about three years of experience. The other thing I wanted to do was to use my stipend to register for my BTech, he said.
Spokesperson Albi Modise said the department was working with the Treasury to find a suitable vehicle to implement the programme without attracting audit queries.
The department did not run out of the money.
The budget is still allocated and is still included in the financial commitments,” Modise explained.
A letter from the department addressed to the CEOs of the SANParks and the Isimangaliso Wetland authority informed them the programme would have to be suspended.
It is regrettable to inform you that the Treasury declined the request for deviation and as such the department will have to devise other means of implementing the programme outside your areas of jurisdiction,” reads the letter.
It said that meant the environmental monitors were now working without contracts or remuneration. This cannot be allowed to “continue, as it does not only lead to noncompliance with the labour practices in general but is grossly unfair to the EMs.”
Modise said the department had applied to deviate from normal procurement processes to appoint the departmental entities (SANParks and Isimangaliso) for the management of the National Environmental Monitors Programme.
The department budgeted R290m for the programme over a three-year period.
The project was suspended while the department was engaging the Treasury on the best way forward.
Modise said the programme would resume as soon as an agreement was reached. The
“projects will continue, and these important workers will undertake training that will assist us to combat poaching of fauna and flora in our national parks,” he said.
The project employed 1,395 people across seven provinces: Eastern Cape (55), Gauteng (45), Free State (69), KwaZulu-Natal (496), Limpopo (435), Mpumalanga (237) and North West (58).
That letter just ended all our hopes and dreams ... Everything I looked forward to came to an abrupt end
It is regrettable to inform you that the Treasury declined the request for deviation