KwaZulu Natal’s parks management agency, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, has refuted a number of allegations made by social justice advocate, Professor of Law and a previous Public Protector, Professor Thuli Madonsela – who wrote an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking for his urgent intervention at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park for the protection of communities, and ultimately, tourism.

In response to the letter, Chairperson of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Lydia Johnson, said: “The open letter contains several inaccuracies which, if left unchallenged, may perpetuate a view that the KZN provincial government and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife ignored the Public Protector’s report written more than eight years ago. Advocate Madonsela’s letter shows a need for more understanding of the entity's interventions since her report’s publication.”

She pointed out that, despite statements to the contrary, the current Ezemvelo board has been prioritising the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park since being appointed in June 2022 and continue to do so.

Johnson further highlighted that the current Public Protector was involved in the matter and had been monitoring developments and addressing most of the issues raised by Advocate Madonsela.

“It is crucial to indicate that Ezemvelo, like many protected areas adjacent to rural communities, experiences the phenomenon referred to as human-wildlife conflict. At the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, what this means is that communities are increasingly building closer to the park fence and, for those with livestock, their livestock graze along the border fence.”

Compensation policy

Johnson pointed out that the policy regulating the compensation arising from human-wildlife conflict claims was approved on January 24, 1994, and is called Compensation Policy Human-wildlife Conflict (HWC Policy).

“It is also false to allege that claims lodged for livestock killed by lions are not compensated for. According to the HWC Policy, the payment is honoured on proof that the dead livestock was killed by wild animals introduced into the community adjacent to protected areas, where they previously never existed. Ezemvelo thus pays for damages caused by animals such as lions, elephants and wild dogs.”

Johnson added, however, that the policy provided that no payment should be made for wild animals such as leopards, hyenas or jackals, which are free-ranging (meaning they exist outside the Park and, therefore, may not necessarily be from Ezemvelo Park), and they also lived long before the establishment of the protected area.

“Ezemvelo continues to pay compensation for claims lodged by the communities as it has always done so in accordance with this policy. In the year 2022, Ezemvelo has paid more than R1.2 million (€70 500) for claims lodged by communities for livestock loss.”

Policy review

One of the recommendations made by the former Public Protector's report was that the compensation policy needed a review. Johnson responded by stating: “Reviewing the compensation policy began a few years ago as directed by the remedial action. The review's essence was to include previously excluded species, including compensation for human injury and loss. However, Ezemvelo had to reconsider reopening the consultation process as communities demanded extended periods of public participation, which period was eventually interrupted by COVID-19 lockdown regulations.”

She added: “As late as June 2022, during Okhukho and Nqulwane protests, even though the policy review had been finalised, communities were still decrying the consultation process and requested that additional public participation sessions be added before finalising the policy. Ezemvelo and the MEC obliged and added extra dates to cater for the Okhukho and Nqulwane communities' requests.”

Johnson said the draft policy had now been completed and, owing to the legal and financial ramifications flowing from the requirement to impose levies and fines on private game owners and the provisions of section 66 of the Public Finance Management Act, Ezemvelo was currently in the process of consulting both the provincial treasury and the KwaZulu Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA).

Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park fencing challenges

“We want to put on record that the member of the public that sent an email to Advocate Madonsela was present when the issue of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park fence was discussed at the special Portfolio Committee on Conservation and Environmental affairs held in August 2022 and is aware of the recommendations that were deliberated upon,” said Johnson.

She noted that, in June 2016, Ezemvelo awarded a R35 million (€2m) fencing contract to SA Fence and Gate Pty (Ltd) to fence 162km of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.

“Some of the conditions of this contract were that the service provider should use local labour. Disagreements erupted between the service provider and some community members. Ezemvelo launched an investigation that revealed several irregularities regarding the project management and service rendered. Ezemvelo further instituted a civil case against SA Fence and Gate to recover the money used. The civil case is still pending at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.”

Jonhson acknowledged that while there were areas where the fence needed strengthening, the evidence on the ground had shown that, in most cases, animal escapes happened at the river crossings.

“Ezemvelo undertook a field assessment in July 2022 to finalise specifications for the Western Boundary fence replacement requirements. The exercise found that an estimated 38.2km of fence required extensive work. This area has been identified as critical and has been targeted for urgent repairs.”

Furthermore, Ezemvelo is taking action concerning the recently increased level of wildlife crime, such as rhino poaching, and the associated animal escapes where poachers and illegal hunters have left holes in the fence to gain entry into the park.

“At a meeting convened by the board chairperson with community leaders, including amakhosi and other community structures, the traditional leadership admitted to a tendency by some community members to cut rolls of fencing material. In one instance, 500m of the fence was cut and removed to get park managers to respond urgently to communities’ demand to create permanent jobs.”

Johnson explained: “Since the recent community protests erupted in July 2022, Ezemvelo has implemented various interventions with various community structures to improve relations between Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and the community. Our interventions have also helped to reduce human-wildlife conflict.”

Ezemvelo and the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park community jointly developed an action plan to address the issue of the animals escaping from the Park.

Ezemvelo took the following steps to resolve the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park problems:

• 251 community people have been contracted as fence liners – helping with monitoring and patching holes in the park perimeter fence.
• Community fence liners contracted by Ezemvelo immediately patch all identified holes in the fence.
• A budget of R9.8 million (€567 000) was secured to commence with priority perimeter fence patching.
• Engineers visited river crossings to assess engineering solutions and submitted their report in September 2022.
• Ezemvelo is currently adjudicating the fence project.
• Extra field rangers were mobilised from other parks to assist with tracking escaped animals and guarding escape hotspot areas.
• The helicopter was deployed to assist in tracking escaped animals.
• A lion call-up was initiated to lure escaped lions back to the Park.
• Ezemvelo secured four extra collars for the Mthembu pride of lions to help with regular tracking.
• Ezemvelo conducted the school’s educational awareness campaign about wild animal behaviour and how people should react if they encountered escaped animals.
• The current EDTEA MEC, Siboniso Duma, has also engaged the affected communities and seconded a senior executive from EDTEA to take over the reins of acting as Ezemvelo’s Chief Executive Officer from September 1.
• Ezemvelo organised a one-stop shop information-sharing session attended by various community structures. Several government departments and entities were invited and allowed to highlight their funding programmes and how the community should access such funding opportunities.
• The Portfolio Committee on Conservation and Environmental Affairs met with all stakeholders to agree on what needed to be done.
• The entity has a commitment of an extra R40 million (€2.3m) from the national government to install the smart fence around the park.
• There is a collaborative effort between community leaders and Ezemvelo to find lasting solutions.
• Ezemvelo continues working with all communities living adjacent to the protected areas. Through the community levy fund, Ezemvelo funds projects identified by the community. The recent projects outside HiP include financing the creation of dams, repairing boreholes, and purchasing a 2-in-1 maize machine.