Ezemvelo drags Madonsela for ‘concerning’ letter about Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

Former public protector, advocate Thuli Madonsela, has come under fire for negative remarks she made against Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife without allegedly checking the facts.

Madonsela has apparently written a letter to President Cyril Ramaposa complaining about the state of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park following an e-mail sent to her in July by a concerned resident.

She further alleged that Ezemvelo had not actioned some of her remedial recommendations in her report titled “Ubuntu”.

She had investigated the state of affairs at the park and released a report about eight years ago.

Ezemvelo chairperson Lydia Johnson accused Madonsela of not doing due diligence before writing to Ramaphosa.

“It is very disappointing that advocate Madonsela is penning this letter to the Honourable President Ramaphosa based on the July 2022 information without making any follow-up on developments since receiving such an e-mail.”

To escalate such a matter to the highest office in the country without conducting this essential due diligence, as well as affording the other parties a right of reply, is concerning, particularly when taking into consideration that the current board has been prioritising the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park since being appointed in June 2022 and continue to do so. As a result of this oversight by advocate Madonsela, we, unfortunately, do not know the contents of the e-mail received from a public member, a Dr. Alan Sara.

She said the open letter contained 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. We are very concerned that advocate Madonsela never bothered to allow the current MEC for Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) Siboniso Duma to respond to the complaints contained in the said e-mail emanating from a member of the public.

“Had the former public protector afforded the MEC such opportunity, he would have assisted in providing an update on the interventions implemented by the KZN provincial government and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to address the challenges raised.

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“Furthermore, she would have been advised that the current office of the public protector is involved in the matter and has been monitoring developments and being provided with reports as late as September 2022, addressing most of the issues raised by Madonsela.”

She added it was crucial to indicate that Ezemvelo, like many protected areas the world over adjacent to rural communities, experiences the phenomenon referred to as human-wildlife conflict.

Human-wildlife conflict is the interaction between wildlife and communities that reside near protected areas, owing to declining habitats and increasing population growth, with communities encroaching into natural spaces at the cost of ecosystems and species resilience, she said.

It is not true that Ezemvelo uses the ‘unjust 1950s apartheid-grounded’ common law principle with regards to the compensation policy. The policy regulating the compensation arising from human-wildlife conflict claims was approved on the 24th of January 1994 and is called Compensation Policy Human-wildlife Conflict (HWC Policy). As can be seen, the policy was approved in the year of the democratic elections.

She said it was 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. The policy provides that no payment 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), and where they also lived long before the establishment of the protected area.

Some of these animals remained outside when the park was established.

One of the recommendations made by the former public protector’s report was that the compensation policy needed a review. 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.

DA provincial spokesperson on economic development, Heinz de Boer said Madonsela was justified in questioning the work that had been done at Ezemvelo.

I’ve had reports in the past two weeks that some resorts near Sodwana were not maintained properly. Unless Ezemvelo finds a significant amount of money, at least R60 million to fix the boundary fence, we are going to continue to see the conflict between human beings and wildlife. Some resorts around KZN have not seen upgrades for 30 years.

EDTEA spokesperson, Malusi Mchunu said the department’s position on the matter is the same as Ezemvelo.

Attempts to get hold of Madonsela proved unsuccessful yesterday.