Durban - The board of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has reacted angrily to accusations made by former Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, that it did not implement remedial measures she recommended almost a decade ago.
The KZN government-owned entity also frowned upon Madonsela alleging that it was relying on an apartheid-era policy to evade accountability over escaped wild animals.
This was sparked by Madonsela’s open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, penned last week.
In the letter, Madonsela pleads with Ramaphosa to intervene in the impasse between residents of Hluhluwe and the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi park in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
According to her, the refusal to compensate residents whose livestock had been devoured by escaped wild game from the park was unjust, against the gains of the country’s democracy and the spirit of Ubuntu.
NEWS: Ezemvelo has lashed out at former Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela for her recent open letter to Pres Cyril Ramaphosa. Among the allegations she made was that the entity is still using an apartheid-grounded policy to compensate communities with devoured livestock. pic.twitter.com/QLVw8BovTi
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) November 29, 2022
“I need you to intervene in Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to reassure the people of communities surrounding the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park that it is not only the Constitutional Court which believes that our democracy is founded on ubuntu, your government equally believes so,” Madonsela writes.
She said she had discovered an email dated July 15, which contained a desperate plea from human rights and environmental activist Alan Sara regarding the state of affairs at the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park.
Sara complained about the decimation of people’s livestock by animals escaping from the poorly managed park and what appeared to be callous indifference from government and park management when alerted to the people’s plight.
“The email, I surmised, was a follow-up to a report I released about eight years ago as Public Protector, titled Ubuntu.
“The report applauded the KZN government for finally embracing the humanity of the people living around the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park who had been perennially terrorised by escaped park residents such as leopards, while park management and government shirked responsibility using an apartheid-grounded 1950s odiously unjust policy,” Madonsela told Ramaphosa in the letter.
Ezemvelo’s board chairperson, Lydia Johnson, who was once the MEC for agriculture and environmental affairs in KZN, said Madonsela’s letter was concerning because the remedial actions were implemented.
“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 email.
“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 (Park) since being appointed in June 2022 and continue to do so,” Johnson wrote in her response to Madonsela.
Johnson denied that they are relying on an unjust apartheid policy as their policy was formulated in 1994.
“It is not true that Ezemvelo uses the ‘unjust 1950s apartheid-grounded’ common law principle. 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.
“It is also 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,” she said.
Johnson said Ezemvelo did pay damages caused by animals such as lions, elephants, and wild dogs.
“The policy provides that no payment should 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 Park), and they also lived long before the establishment of the protected area.
"Some of these animals remained outside when the Park was established. Ezemvelo continues to pay compensation for claims lodged by the communities as it has always done so in accordance with this policy. In the year 2022, Ezemvelo has paid more than R1.2m for claims lodged by communities for livestock loss,” Johnson said.