Durban - A lion is on the prowl near Pongola after it escaped from a private game park when fences were cut by a group claiming the land where the park is situated.
The Mkuze Falls Game Reserve, an initiative run by the Ntunzana Community Trust brought an urgent application before Judge Gregory Kruger in
the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday.
Kruger granted the trust an interim interdict stopping five members of a group identified as the “Concerned Group” from tampering with or damaging fences belonging to the reserve.
The interim interdict also restrains the five individuals – Nqaba Ntshangase, Nkosinathi Mthiyane, Sebenzile Ntshangase, Simon Nkambule and Musa Duma – from inciting violence or harassing members of the Ntunzana Community Trust which derives an income from Mkuze Falls Game Reserve.
Mkuze Falls is a private game reserve, not to be confused with the popular tourist attraction, Mkuze Game Reserve – under the control of iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
In court papers, trustee of the Ntunzana Community Trust, Themba Timothy Xulu said the Ntunzana Communal Property Trust was established in 2009 after a successful land claim by the Mahlongosi Community.
However the trust did not operate because King Goodwill Zwelithini went to court claiming that the land allocated to the trust by Land Affairs belonged to him.
Last year, an agreement was reached between the trustees of Ntunzana Trust and the Minister of Land Affairs in which the title in land at Pongola was transferred to the trust for the benefit of 482 households.
He said “out of nowhere” the Concerned Group emerged and said they wanted to be members of Ntunzana Trust.
However an investigation by Regional Land Claims commission has found they were not members of the Ntunzana community and have no claim to the land.
The group has refused to accept this and has given the Department of Land Affairs a deadline of November 30 to “sort out the land issues”, failing which it threatened to take the law into its own hands and has made death threats against trust members.
Members of the Concerned Group have allegedly said they “will destroy” Mkuze Falls Game Reserve.
On November 15, Xulu said he received a call from the manager of the reserve who reported that a fence had been cut and “one of the lions was on the prowl”.
Community members were warned to be on the lookout for the animal.
He said the Ntunzana community would “suffer extreme financial prejudice” if its property was destroyed or damaged as there were many developmental projects geared for the community.
Members would also lose their source of income if Mkuze Falls Game Reserve, was destroyed.
He said the game reserve had been a source of income for many families for years.
The Concerned Group have until February 5 to respond to the trust’s allegations.
Daily News
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