Wetland park to defend court order

ISIMANGALISO Wetland Park CEO Sibusiso Bukhosini said the organisation is ready to defend the interdict preventing Dukuduku residents from accessing Futululu Forest.

This after the 72 community members who were in August arrested for allegedly invading the forest lodged a court application to rescind the interdict.

The hearing will be held on Wednesday, 30 November.

The accused community members, who last appeared at Mtubatuba Magistrate's Court on Friday, have repeatedly said they need access to the disputed land to use it for farming after the flooding of their farmland when the Mfolozi river mouth and St Lucia estuary were closed to the sea.

On Wednesday, Bukhosini said the park was more than ready to defend the court order and interdict.

Bukhosini explained that, in instances where land that is under conservation and has been successfully claimed through the Restitution of Land Rights Act, an agreement is reached that the claimants can have ownership of the land but cannot occupy or make use of it, and the conservation authority that oversaw said land continues with this duty.

He also explained that these communities had been farming on a floodplain, and that historical agricultural activities had resulted in the back flooding that inundated their fields.

Bukhosini said the park would deal firmly with people invading its land to ensure it remained protected.

“Unfortunately, for some of them we must carry a stick,” said Bukhosini.