The wild, ugly and beautiful

File photo: Independent Media

File photo: Independent Media

Published Dec 29, 2014

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KZN has seen great green victories, dramatic clashes and devastating losses. Kamcilla Pillay scanned some of the province’s ups and downs.

WELL-PLAYED

The death of Dr Ian “Madolo” Player in November resulted in a sombre mood before the busy festive season.

The legendary green activist, 87, credited with saving the white rhino from extinction, suffered a stroke with complications on November 20.

His nickname had been inspired by an old wartime knee injury, and those closest to him likened him to a buffalo: short-tempered, and formidable.

Player was also one of the founders of the Dusi Canoe Marathon, and the Wilderness Foundation, which he launched with the help of the late Magqubu Ntombela, a Zulu tribal chief and renowned conservationist, in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in 1959.

RHINO-ING OUT OF TIME

KwaZulu-Natal has been hard hit by the poaching pandemic, having lost 77 of the endangered beasts as at November this year.

Close to 1 000 rhino have been poached in South Africa so far this year.

Statistics show that 637 rhino have been poached in the Kruger National Park, 109 in Limpopo, 61 in Mpumalanga, 58 in North West province, 14 in Eastern Cape, four in Free State, three in Gauteng, one in Mapungubwe National Park, one in Western Cape and two in Northern Cape.

But the news was not all bad.

In July, Mandla Chauke, who was arrested in Kruger National Park in 2011, was sentenced to 77 years in prison in Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court.

In the same month, two Mozambicans received 16 years in prison for killing a rhino.

DIS-GREASE

Earlier this month, the Bluff Silt Canal became caked in a thick, greasy spillage after a leak. Authorities are yet to nab the culprits.

The municipality said: “The source of the oil could not be traced but it is suspected the oil slops were discharged from a tanker. The likely source in the Amanzimnyama catchment was inspected, but no evidence of oil in the stormwater drainage system was found and no fresh oil stains were noted on the banks of the Amanzimnyama Canal.”

The pollution left a 10m-wide slick in the canal, staining boats and ropes, leaving black scum on the surface and on the beach and damaging mangroves.

OUT IN THE COAL(D)

Ibutho Coal came under heavy criticism from environmental groups in June for their proposed plan to develop an anthracite coal mine on the boundary of the world-renowned Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.

They argued that the mine had the potential to inflict severe and irreversible impacts on the flagship nature reserve and on the communities surrounding it.

Ibutho Coal submitted an application to the Department of Mineral Resources last year for a proposed mine bordered by the Umfolozi River to the north, the Richards Bay railway line to the south and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve to the northwest.

The opencast and underground mine covers more than 14 000ha, and cuts across 20km of rural Zululand countryside.

DEAD IN THE WATER

The draining of the Balamhlanga wetland in the Makhathini Flats near Jozini drew huge criticism for the province’s wildlife protection body, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, earlier this year.

The project allegedly cost R25 million and was done without any permits or detailed environmental impact studies.

A “weed invasion” had been the reason given at the time for the action but it had been later confirmed that the Typha latifolia bulrushes at the site were not alien, but indigenous to South Africa.

THE LINE IN THE SAND

In a continuing battle, marine activists slated the municipality’s “pump-and-dump” sand scheme, saying the practice was detrimental to marine organisms and the health of Durban beaches and beach users.

In September, a mysterious black sludge and “excessive” amounts of sand and debris catapulted the debate back into the headlines.

Experts said that the man-made reef at Vetch’s Beach would be smothered.

They reasoned that the sand might have been dredged from the harbour, making it dirty and polluted.

The city defended itself by saying that the practice was necessary because dredging near the harbour mouth had stopped the natural migration and replenishment of sand on the city’s beaches.

BLOWN AWAY

Northern KwaZulu-Natal residents endured a tornado in the region last month.

The South African Weather Services could not confirm it, however – Vryheid does not fall within its radar coverage of the Durban area.

It urged the public to take precautions when severe thunderstorms or tornadoes occurred in the early summer months.

HARBOURING RESENTMENT

the Transnet National Ports Authority announced in July that phase one of construction of the new digout port would not meet the expected completion date of 2020. The proposed port project in the South Durban Basin incurred a backlash from environmental and social activist groups.

Costs for the project have continued to escalate and estimates are between R75 billion and R100bn. The project in its entirety could take between 20 and 40 years to be fully completed. Previous media reports said the project would increase the volume of container trade at the Port of Durban from the current 2.69 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to between 9 million and 12 million TEUs over 30 years.

Critical groups said the development put people in further danger in terms of health, and the proposed port only benefited a small group of corporate interests.

ON HOLD

Chief executive of KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife, Dr Bandile Mkhize, and financial officer, Darius Chitate, were suspended last month amid investigations into the restructuring of executive and management salary structures totalling R20m.

Ezemvelo employees had claimed the process was for the sole benefit of management and at the expense of low-ranking staff.

Ezemvelo’s finances, according to a preliminary report, had been compromised by the implementation of the unbudgeted restructuring.

PAPER TRAIL

This initiative, headed by KZN-based paper mill giant Mondi in conjunction with iSimangaliso Wetlands Park, was chronicled in the WWF’s Living Planet Report.

Mondi’s project, titled SiyaQhubeka Forests (or SQF), is based near the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

The project is noted for its community involvement.

Many local people graze their cattle in the plantations, collect firewood and honey, and some work as contractors.

On neighbouring tribal lands, 3 000 residents grow eucalyptus trees, and the project pays them a premium for the wood they supply.

Mondi also helps to rehabilitate parts of the wetland previously damaged by plantation practices.

ALIENATED

The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs this month announced plans to contest the findings of a Durban High Court, which declared in October that the department’s failure to publish the regulations and invasive species list by August 31, 2006, was unlawful and unconstitutional.

It further ordered that the relevant departments comply with and implement properly and fully their invasive monitoring, control and eradication plans.

They were given a six-month deadline to implement these changes.

The initial action was brought by the Kloof Conservancy.

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