Downward spiral for bungee beneficiaries
● It was supposed to be a giant leap for community development — a percentage of revenue from the world’s highest bridge bungee jump for remote forest villages.
But millions of rands from the Bloukrans bungee jump have instead allegedly bounced into the pockets of an Eastern Cape pastor and other community leaders appointed to oversee the Tsitsikamma Forest Village Trust.
The trust’s financial affairs are now under scrutiny, both by the police and by lawyers contesting a legal challenge from the intended beneficiaries.
The project that promised so much has delivered next to nothing.
The trust also derives income from renting out tourism facilities at a 29ha rest area next to the Bloukrans bridge, which carries the N2 between Port Elizabeth and Plettenberg Bay.
Bungee operator Face Adrenalin this week said it was concerned about the implosion of the trust. CEO Devon Tuohey said: “It’s soul-destroying to learn that the monies we have contributed … are allegedly going into the pockets of the very people entrusted with distributing them.”
Unhappiness over mismanagement of trust affairs sparked a protest at the Bloukrans rest area in June. Disgruntled would-be beneficiaries blocked the entrance to a “Khoisan village” that they say has failed to benefit the community. Police had to intervene.
Papers filed in the high court in Pretoria claim that:
● The trust was intended to uplift residents of 13 remote forestry hamlets;
● Instead, most of the money appears to have ended up with seven trustees who submitted regular expense claims for trust meetings despite the trust deed stipulating they should receive no remuneration;
● The trust has not held an annual meeting or produced audited financial statements for three years;
● According to the last audited statements in 2015, trustee expenses totalled R419,937 and beneficiary donations just R24,621; and
● Trustee expenses ballooned to R688,355 for 2016/2017, compared with donations of R32,655. One trustee submitted expenses for up to 70 meetings.
The court papers include an affidavit from one of the intended beneficiaries, Yolande le Roux, saying the trust chair, pastor Wilson Wogane, was fraudulently elected.
A founding affidavit by Le Roux said: “It is difficult to understand how it is possible and/or necessary to have so many meetings given that the trust employs full-time managers and employees to manage the day-to-day running of the trust.”
Le Roux also detailed other alleged financial irregularities, including loans to trustees.
A report on the trust’s affairs compiled by an independent auditor concluded: “The business assets of the trust are … so poorly administered as to result in practically no benefit to the beneficiaries at all.”
Attorney Stuart Hiscox, representing unhappy community members, said the court application sought to appoint new trustees and amend trust rules so there could be no further abuse.
Wogane did not respond to Sunday Times queries, but the trust’s legal representative from Boqwana Burns said the trust “has never really functioned as it should”.
The trustees have not yet filed responding papers.