INLSA
Staff from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife struggle to prevent a heavily sedated black rhino bull from charging spectators.
The provincial government had no plans to cut off state funding for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, but the conservation agency would need to start raising substantially more revenue, finance portfolio committee chair Belinda Scott said at the weekend.
Elaborating on comments she made at a committee meeting in Pietermaritzburg last week, Scott told The Mercury that her committee did not expect Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to be “completely self-sustaining. But they will have to generate more revenue”.
Noting that Ezemvelo received an annual subsidy of about R500 million, Scott said she was not convinced the conservation agency was doing enough to market the province’s conservation assets effectively.
“What we are saying is that we want to ensure that we get value for money, and that Ezemvelo has to use the current funding more wisely.
“This does not mean that the province does not care about conservation, and obviously Ezemvelo will still require huge government subsidies in future.”
However, Scott said she was concerned that Ezemvelo’s personnel costs were increasing while the number of staff had decreased.
“Part of the reason for this is that they are giving salary increases of 8 percent. These massive increases are no longer sustainable and we are going to have to negotiate with the trade unions and say: ‘There is only so much money’.
“When we asked Ezemvelo about their marketing component I did not get a clear answer, so one of the things we have asked for is a strategic plan. We will also be asking for more details on their full staff complement and whether these people are properly placed.”
Another concern was that while national parks in other provinces received central government funding through SA National Parks, most funding for conservation in KZN came from provincial government budget allocations.
The DA, meanwhile, has called for an urgent meeting of the province’s conservation portfolio committee “to scrutinise the conservation body’s grasp of its core mandate”.
“Contrary to what Ezemvelo officials appear to believe, hospitality is not the wildlife body’s core function. Its mandate is to protect conservation within our province,” said Radley Keys, the DA provincial spokesman on conservation.
“It is confusion within this key area that has led to Ezemvelo’s funding woes – to the extent that there is currently no direct budget allocated for the fight against rhino poaching in this province,” Keys said.
“This situation represents an urgent need for the separation of tasks in the… body.
“Ezemvelo continues to tout its hospitality arm as a cash cow. The reality is that, rather than being income generators, the camps are loss leaders. Despite staff cuts, salary bills continue to grow. Meanwhile, occupancy rates remain low and facilities and infrastructure are largely neglected.
“This is indicative of a malaise among staff, led by a clearly incompetent and self-serving management.
“Ezemvelo has proved itself inept when it comes to this aspect of the business. It is time this was acknowledged, with the running of facilities [being] put out to tender or a public-private partnership entered into.”
Ezemvelo chief executive Bandile Mkhize and Ezemvelo board chairman Comfort Ngidi did not respond to requests for comment.
