An apparent effort to disrupt a meeting the community involved in the geotrail near this town had with a national minister left a Mpumalanga MEC with an egg on her face.

Makhosazane Masilela, the Mpumalanga MEC for economic development and tourism, apparently not only tried, and failed, to disrupt this meeting, but also became involved in a public spat in which she played the race card.

ALSO READ: Landowners take MTPA to court for alleged illegal construction along the Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail route

This happened on Monday, November 11 when she, apparently accompanied by a rent-a-crowd, pitched up at a previously arranged meeting between Dr Dion George, minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment, and the communities and stakeholders to which the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains World Heritage Site belong.

She told the gathering that the meeting with George was cancelled.

However, minutes later, George arrived for the meeting and Masilela jumped in her car and left.

ALSO READ: Geologists revisit Makhonjwa Mountains Geotrail

George’s visit followed the community’s call for assistance from national government to intervene in a continuous feud about the mismanagement of the geotrail.

“I visited the site on Sunday and was deeply saddened at the state of the site and its clear mismanagement. I am committed to finding a solution for the community,” George said during the meeting.

A war of words erupted when Masilela issued a statement in which she accused George of racism and criticised him for having ‘a private meeting’ with the Barberton Tourism and Biodiversity Corridor (Batobic) and other stakeholders.

“I am totally disappointed by the minister’s unilateral decision to meet the two groups of stakeholders in separate venues,” she said.

She also flung the race card and accused George that his meeting was ‘indicating that the action bordered on racial lines’.

“I, as well as the executive mayors of Ehlanzeni and Gert Sibande district municipalities and the speaker of the City of Mbombela, were not even invited to that private meeting, which to me bordered along racial lines. Why should he meet people with a different skin colour privately, and even at a guest house belonging to one of them, when the arrangement was that all stakeholders will be met at the Barberton Museum? Is he not perpetuating racial segregation in this way?”

She also threatened to ask the Mpumalanga premier, Mandla Ndlovu, to raise this matter with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

However, in a written response to her accusations, George said he had met with the community and private landowners of the heritage site at an independent venue.

He said he did not, as Masilela claimed, meet with the Batobic. “I met with the MEC and Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency [MTPA] on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at Environment House in Pretoria on the issue of the heritage site, which is when it was agreed that [I] should conduct a site visit and stakeholder engagements.”

According to one of the stakeholders, who wished to remain anonymous, an agenda of the whole visit, including the so-called ‘offensive’ meeting, was issued to all, including Masilela, before the visit.

“I was there today. [It was] total mayhem. The community came with a completely different agenda,” Linda Grimbeek, COO of the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT), said.