Thumbs up for suspension of board

I NOTE that in Wednesday’s edition of The Mercury it was reported that the board of Ezemvelo Wildlife had been suspended for maladministration.

As holders of the National Park’s “Wild” lifelong cards, my wife and I have been visiting wildlife game parks in the country for many decades, and over five or so decades have visited every game park in South Africa; and Namibia, and also visit the Kruger Park every year.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the “accusations” regarding Ezemvelo made in your article.

Two years ago, I took my young adult grandson from Canada to introduce him to our game parks and, hopefully, build up in him a love of them, through a visit to the Hluhluwe Park.

Unfortunately, the accommodation and some other facilities were so poor that I was ashamed of the state of the management of the park, and we moved into a private facility in the area.

Last December my wife and I and one of my sons and his family spent time at Ndumo Game Reserve – once again the facilities and accommodation, as well as the state of the roads, was shocking. So much so that my offroad vehicle had difficulty in traversing some of the roads.

On both occasions I wrote polite letters to Ezemvelo management telling them about the situation and what the impression of especially overseas visitors must be. On both occasions all I got was letters full of platitudes with promises to improve performance.

I can categorically say that based on my experience the parks managed by Ezemvelo are the worst in the country – by far. So I applaud the decision to suspend the board and hope that a new board will be constituted comprising people who know something about how a game park should be managed. I hasten to say that many of the “on-site” employees were very helpful, but all complained that they got no support from their managers.

MALCOLM MITCHELL | Hillcrest