Ezemvelo staff are still doing great work under difficult conditions
MURRAY Pitman’s letter “Hluhluwe/ iMfolozi jewel doesn’t sparkle that brightly these days” (The Mercury, May 10) refers.
I agree with much of what he says regarding the deterioration of the state of the park and other reserves in KZN. For my first visit in 1964, my DHS pal invited me to join him and his famous aunt, Joan Root, the renowned Kenyan conservationist, who had come to Zululand to see the white rhino. It was run by the Natal Parks Board then, arguably the world’s finest conservation body. The reserve’s boundaries were still largely unfenced and the tar stopped just short of Mtubatuba.
Facilities at Mpila were clean, sparse and catered for the bare minimum. My impression as a 15-year-old was that tourists were viewed as necessary but not particularly welcome, with somewhat dour office staff with little “bedside manner”. There were no shops and only communal kitchen facilities, but as a conservation success story, it reigned supreme in Africa as the saviour of the southern white rhino.
It counted great men, such as Ian Player, Nick Steele and Maqubu Ntombela, among its guardians. Now almost 60 years later, we have the current situation. However, I would not generalise about the quality of the staff of Ezemvelo nor blame them all for the drop in standards. The key difference lies in the fact that their budget base has been decimated in recent years – put simply there is no money for maintenance. If you go to many of Ezemvelo’s reserves you will find able, hard-working and dedicated staff doing their best under impossible circumstances.
Lotheni in the Drakensberg is a good example. There you will find old “Parks Board” facilities spotlessly clean and neat as a pin, if a little faded at the edges. The staff are helpful and polite and welcome tourists. The shop is stocked to the brim with a wide variety of goods. So, Murray, like you we will continue to visit iMfolozi and other reserves in KZN for as long as the game viewing is world class and the embattled conservation staff need our help and encouragement to save these places and particularly the rhino population.
GEOFF CARUTH |