Students hopes dashed by bogus safari school

MBOMBELA – Thousands of matrics are waiting for their final results, ready to enter the world of tertiary education. But, locally a few parents are hot under the collar after having wasted up to R50 000 in the hopes of their children acquiring a tertiary qualification in nature conservation and hospitality at an institution without the necessary accreditation.

They took the organisation’s assurance that they were indeed accredited by the necessary bodies, in good faith and didn’t double-check themselves.

These fuming parents recently contacted Lowvelder after their children returned from Safari Lodge School situated at KwaMadwala Private Game Reserve near Hectorspruit, complaining that they had learnt nothing.  “We believed in what this school promised it could offer. The course was divided into two categories of which the first focused on lodge management, hospitality and how to run a lodge, restaurants and accommodation and how to treat tourists. The other category entailed field-ranger training and the treatment of tourists,” the parents explained.

Many of them requested to remain anonymous, out of fear of their children being victimised.

The students were told to bring their own bedding, a fan and leisure clothes and uniforms. The fee for these year-long courses at the school amounted to about R50 000.

The school offered accommodation, meals, the use of all facilities and practical training and training via an accredited assessor/trainer. The prospectus also included the different subjects that formed part of the training of the Field Guide Association of South Africa (FGASA).

Mr Conrad van Eyssen, the managing director at KwaMadwala Lodge and the Safari Lodge School, said they had told the parents to register their children directly with FGASA and the International Hotel School in Durban and that his school was accredited with both institutions. But the parents deny this claim. They said Van Eyssen said the theoretical and the practical parts of this course would be handled at the Safari Lodge School.

The parents were also assured that there were proper accommodation and meals for the students, a mentorship programme and course facilitators.

During a meeting with Van Eyssen and Nunan, they explained to Lowvelder that this intake of students was their first group and they acknowledged that they had possibly made mistakes.

However, Nunan said it was clear to him that the children did not share their parents’ enthusiasm for the training at the school or the direction their training was taking.  “None of us were truly convinced that they ever wanted to be guides in the first place and they were here at KwaMadwala for the wrong reasons.” Nunan added, “The trainees were given every opportunity to become involved and they were exposed to every area and task of a ranger guide.”

He said the issue for him was that of commitment and enthusiasm. He also mentioned that whenever he spoke to the parents he was thanked for all they were doing for the students and for taking care of them. “At no time until the very end did I receive a negative phone call about any of the trainees from parents.”

One of the parents, Mr Mark Boucher, said Van Eyssen had made an irrevocable commitment that he and Nunan would take full responsibility for his son’s FGASA level-one qualification, “or I would get my money back – guaranteed”.
However, Van Eyssen told Lowvelder he was not prepared to refund the money and Nunan said he could guarantee there would have been no problems if even one student passed their FGASA tests.

But notwithstanding Van Eyssen and Nunan’s claims, Lowvelder established that The Safari Lodge School has not been accredited by FGASA. Mr Brian Serrao of FGASA says, “I’m not sure who Safari Lodge School is and they are definitely not endorsed by us. Parents must do their homework when looking at training schools.  All our training schools are listed on our website. They can always contact me via email when looking at good schools at brian@fgasa.org.za”

We further investigated and found that the International Hotel School (IHS) in Durban had no relations with The Safari Lodge School and, after the newspaper approached it for comment, they asked Van Eyssen to remove all references to IHS of their website. Ms Ruth Paulsen of IHS said, “We are in no other way associated with The Safari School and they are not accredited by the International Hotel School. We have sent the correspondence to terminate the relationship forthwith and have requested that all reference to us be taken off their website.” Lowvelder can confirm that the information relating to the IHS has since been removed.

The final findings were that The Safari Lodge School was also not registered as a training facility with the Sector Education and Training Authority for Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport. This is a legal necessity, according to Skills and Development Act, no 97 of 1998.

After many emails back and forth, Van Eyssen told Lowvelder he was willing that students could return to the Safari Lodge School for a final attempt to make it up to level one of FGASA.

The students could stay until they can write the next exam which will be in February. He undertook that he wouldn’t charge the parents for anything extra.

But a day later, Nunan, with Conrad’s approval, made another email proposition to parents that he would offer training to the students at their homes in order to help them get the necessary qualification.

When approached by Lowvelder about the offer, the parents were sceptical and said “let’s wait and see”.