MalaMala: a dream denied

Sitting on a worn camp chair, his tormented eyes fixed aimlessly on the trunk of the tree shading him, 104-year-old Spokes Sithole cuts a sad and haunting figure in his cleanly swept yard.

His disheartened smile is like a crack appearing on arid ground, telling the story of a bothered, broken and poor man from Huntington, bordering on the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga.

Sithole is constantly haunted by the fate of getting a pauper’s burial, despite being part-owner of a staggering 65 000 hectares of prime land, which includes the nearby world-class MalaMala private game and safari lodge.

One of the largest private big five game reserves in South Africa, MalaMala, which boasts three safari camps, shares a 19km unfenced boundary with the iconic Kruger National Park.

R1.1 billion deal

The land was purchased by the government in a record R1.1-billion land deal on behalf of the dispossessed communities grouped under the N’Wandlamharhi Communal Property Association (CPA) in 2013.

To ensure the survival of the prime lodge, the CPA entered into a co-management agreement with the previous owners, MalaMala Pty (Ltd), entailing monthly rental payments, profit dividends and a community levy.

By December 2017, R36.2 million in leases had been paid to the CPA and the operating company pays annual dividends comprising no less than 50% of operating profit to Mondzo Pty (Ltd).

In 2017, R10.2 million was paid in dividends; the following year the CPA received R8.1 million and R7.2 million in community levies was paid from 2014 to 2018.

According to the report of the portfolio committee on agriculture, land reform and rural development, this entity, owned by the CPA, then transfers a percentage of the dividends to the CPA for distribution to the members.

It had paid R40 million in dividends to shareholders. Mondzo also received about R12 million, or 30% of the profits in line with the shareholder agreements, and paid R6 million to the CPA.

Poverty

However, the community has received nothing, other than an incomplete community hall and a borehole drilled at a school.

Instead of improving the lives of the beneficiaries, including Sithole, they are living in dusty and poor settlements with no proper roads, public facilities or running water.

“As you can see, I have nothing. I survive on my [R2 000] grant. I sleep on the floor with my grandchildren because my two bedrooms collapsed during the recent heavy rains.

“I have to collect rain water because our taps ran dry a long time ago,” he murmured in a faint voice.

Since 2013, Sithole, who is one of the beneficiaries of the deal, has received a total of R160 000 in amounts of R10 000 in 2015, R60 000 in 2016, another R60 000 in 2017 and R30 000 in 2018.

This week, beneficiaries were due to receive R20 000 but Sithole, who has two wives, says the funds are meaningless as he has to share the proceeds with his 10 children and more than 20 grandchildren.

“It is not my money only, it’s for the whole family. We are being thrown a pittance whilst a select few are getting rich,” he said.

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A beneficiary, Ephraim Nyalungu of Lillydale, died a broken man at the age of 84 last year and was given a paupers’ burial, despite contributing to fund logistics for the claim.

His wife Nalitha, 82, detailed how the CPA’s handling of their financial affairs had left her husband angry and bitter.

“He always talked about how his efforts have benefitted a select few instead of the entire community. He was a sad man,” she said. Alfred Lubisi, 70, said his father, Masungula, died in 2015 at the age of 91 without receiving a cent from the deal, although he was amongst those in the forefront of the land claim.

Lubisi has since joined a group of community members taking the CPA head-on and was part of a group of disgruntled residents who shut the main entrance into the lodge to voice their grievances.

“What is disappointing with this whole saga is that it is our relatives that are ripping us off. I am sure something is going to give,” Lubisi said sternly.

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– siphom@citizen.co.za