EZEMVELO KZN WILDLIFE - THE OFFICIAL INTERNAL NEWSLETTER
INKANYEZI
S R EA
Y 2
G N 4 UNNI CE ST ERVI S PROGRAMME Biodiversity Stewardship Programme Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife - 15 January 2010
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“Wal aven k expe ing on th on E a rienc e wil e no dern rth” t to b e e mi ss is an ssed ”
Vision, Mission and Core Values Vision Jetros Vilana joined the Organisation in March of 1967 where he started his career in Game Capture Centre as a member of the antelope capture team. Here he formed part of the legendary team that pioneered the use of the funnel capture technique which has become the world standard. His passion and dedication for game capture has seen him remaining in the unit for the past 42 years where he currently holds the position of Chief Animal Attendant. Here he plays a pivotal role in the management of the unit and provides valuable insight and guidance to the members of the team. “Your dedication, perseverance and sense of duty is a shinning light for us all to follow. The service you have given Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is of an excellent nature. You continued service you give us is of far more value than what we can ever give you in return”. Jetros Vilana. “On behalf of the Organization we thank you for your continued commitment, loyalty and selfless service”. CEO, Dr Bandile Mkhize.
Page 2 Vision, Mission and Core Values
Page 3 - 4
CONTENTS
Foreword by the CEO
Page 4
“Heaven on Earth”
Page 5
First Forestry Property - Proclaimed As A Nature Reserve
Page 6
Ezemvelo Recognises Service Excellence
Page 7 - 8
Community Levy Fund fostering access to rural development
Page 9
The Ezemvelo Cup
Page 10
We’re kicking off to Host the World
Page 11
Soccer Friday Campaign Launch & Towards a delivery orientated organisation
Page 12
iMfolozi APU Members Visits SAPS NIU Base &Soccer Friday Winners
“To be a world renowned leader in the field of biodiversity conservation”
Mission “To ensure effective conservation and sustainable use of KwaZulu Natal’s biodiversity in collaboration with stakeholders for the benefit of present and future generations”
Core Values • Integrity – at all times we act morally, ethically, and with honesty • Respect – we treat stakeholders with patience, politeness, and acknowledge and value their rights and those of the environment • Accountability – we involve stakeholders in the organisation’s activities with a culture of openness and are answerable for the outcome of our actions and activities • Team Work – working together to achieve our vision through goals • Innovation – an adaptable organisation that embraces the culture of creativ-
ity and learning • Excellence – we are a progressive organisation applying best practices to achieve the highest quality and standards • Commitment – at all times we undertake our activities with passion, loyalty and dedication • Productivity – we undertake to produce results timeously, efficiently and effectively.
Editorial Team Editor in Chief Dr Bandile Mkhize Managing Editor Mr Simpiwe Mxakaza News Team Maureen Zimu, Jeff Gaisford, Lindiwe Mfeka Language Services Philani Ncalane Layout and Design Mediacom SA
Copyright Inkanyezi is a quarterly internal newsletter published by the Communications Division of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (Ezemvelo). All material published is copyrighted and cannot be used without the written permission of the Editor in Chief.
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Foreword by the CEO
ear Colleagues, Welcome back in 2010, I hope you had wonderful holidays and rest with family and friends. This is indeed a great year in the history of South Africa as we are counting down to kick off of the Soccer World Cup, this is the year for delivery and we must all gear ourselves to make a positive contribution to rural development. Last year was very productive, we managed to turn a lot of things around and implemented a number of groundbreaking initiatives. This would not be achievable without the hard work and support of our members of staff, keep up the good work and stay motivated to do more at all times. I will take this opportunity to briefly update you on the initiatives that took place in the year 2009. We started with a bang and developed a 5 year Organisational Strategy with the aim to improve the operations of the organization, parallel to that process we embarked on a realignment of organization resources to strategy as well as the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project. This organisational strategy and resource alignement is at an advanced stage of implementation at the present moment, I would like to take this opportunity to re-iter-
ate to our members of staff that this process is to ensure that we deliver the best within our limited resources at all times and that this is not by any means directed at displacing people from employment. The ERP Project is also at final stages with the “go live” date for the Commercial Operations System which took place on 1 February 2010, the rest of the systems which include Procurement, Finance Management etc will go live on the 1 April 2010. We are very positive that these systems will go a long way at ensuring that our business processes are improved for the better. We embarked on a number of communication and marketing initiatives to make sure that Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is a household brand in the minds of South Africans and the rest of the world. Due to those initiatives we have been able to counter the effects of the time when public opinion was not in our favour. We can safely say that we have regained the public confidence in the organization and we are taking great strides at ensuring that we put this organization to where it belongs. As a result of our efforts, we have been awarded by PMR Africa and the AA travel Guide through our Hilltop and Ntshondwe resorts we were further
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runner ups for the FNB KwaZulu – Natal top Business Portfolio which is great. We have been invited to receive two awards in Europe, these two awards are the Golden Award for Tourist, Hotel and Catering Industry for 2010 and the 25th Annual Golden Europe Award for Quality. We have made considerable progress in strengthening ties with other public service institutions as well as the private sector in a bid to further deliver on the government mandate of rural development through our Corporate Social Responsibility Programme the Community Levy Fund and other Extended Public Works Programmes which are under our ambit such as the Invasive Alien Species Programme. Through the Community Levy Fund we have been able to deliver services which are critical to the well being of the communities neighbouring our protected areas. During 2009 we saw the re-instatement of the Ezemvelo Board which had been suspended, and the Interim Accounting Officer had to cease its operation. Invitations for the nomination of a new board were sent out to affected and interested parties and as of now we have a new board in place. The new board members are Mr
Dr Bandile Mkhize CEO
Z C Ngidi (Chairperson), Inkosi B F Bhengu, Ms D M Dold, Ms B P Mchunu – Mzila, Ms P S Dlamini, Ms T Dlamini, Inkosi M I Tembe, Dr A T Nzama, Mr W U Nel and Mr S N M Dladla. We hope to gain a lot of expertise and experience from them and their valued inputs to the operations of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. On the conservation arena we have seen a number of groundbreaking initiatives where we are seeing a steady increase in land under conservation by landowners. We had the signing of an agreement with the Mabandla Tribal Authority and Gumbi Tribal Authority which made a positive contribution to our biodiversity stewardship programme. We have witnessed the inauguration of the Nsikeni Local Board which we have long been awaiting for in our efforts to strengthen our relationships with communities neighbouring protected areas. The Nsikeni Nature Reserve which falls within the Mabandla Tribal
Authority has been finally declared as a RAMSAR Site because of its wetland status, this presentation was made by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs Mrs Joyce Mabudafhasi on 2 February 2010 at an event held at the South African National Botanic Institute. This is a well recognised effort for the organisation as well as the community of Nsikeni in the effort towards water preservation for the benefit of present and future generations in South Africa. We have involved ourselves in environmental cleanup campaigns last year which includes the Beach Cleanup which
we jointly hosted with Vodacom, Ethekwini Municipality and other stakeholders which was a great success. We had a prize giving event which involved a number of schools which were part of the campaign of ensuring that we protect our dwindling marine resources. We pioneered the Willowfontein River Cleanup Project in partnership with the Office of the Premier Spousal Office which was also a great success, we wish to further involve other communities in this initiative moving forward to ensure that we promote cleanliness of the water resources which are local to our communities.
We celebrated 50 years of Wilderness as our own Hluhluwe – Imfolozi Park pioneered this activity back in history, this celebration was attended by key players in conservation history as well as visitors from abroad. We have strengthened our working relationship with Isimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and I am pleased to say that this relationship is working fairly well, we have joint management meetings in place which we attend and work forward from them. We shall continue to advance the rationale behind the existence of the organisation to all interested and affected
parties to ensure that conservation is on top of their agendas. We wish to extend an invitation to all our members of staff and stakeholders to join us in our effort to be the world renowned leader in the field of biodiversity conservation and to ensure the effective conservation and sustainable use of KwaZulu – Natal’s biodiversity. Have a great year ahead and remember to be motivated and purpose driven at all times. “Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today”.
Dr Bandile Mkhize
“Heaven on Earth”
Seeing any of the Big Five on foot makes for a magical experience
W
alking on the wilderness is an experience not to be missed. Experiences such as observing rhino lying under a tree then walking a large loop around them, looking behind to make sure they are not following – Encountering any of the Big Five or the other animals while on foot, are all part of magical experience. “Both spiritual and physical rejuvenation
are achieved with a space of few days through solitude and beauty of pristine wilderness, unspoilt by modern man”. says Maureen. Trail Leader – Rick Wilson with Maureen Zimu , Internal & External Communications with a group of journalist experiencing an iMfolozi Wilderness trail in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. This is a spectacular view point overlooking the White iMfolozi River.
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FIRST FORESTRY PROPERTY PROCLAIMED AS A NATURE RESERVE
K
waZulu-Natal is incredibly rich in biodiversity features, determined predominantly by the diversity of landscapes in the province. Following this trend, a diversity of different landuses occur in the province, which includes an extensive area of exotic timber plantations. The Grasslands Programme, coordinated by SANBI and funded by GEF, has a focal programme aimed at involving the forestry industry in environmental management, by mainstreaming biodiversity protection into their business activities. One of the main activities of this initiative is to secure those natural, unplanted areas of land with biodiversity value on these forestry estates through the biodiversity stewardship mechanism. The Biodiversity Stewardship approach is gaining huge popularity as a means to engage with private and communal landowners, allowing them to contribute to biodiversity security and also gain direct economic benefits from conservation as a landuse.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has initiated a Biodiversity Stewardship programme in the province to expand the network of protected areas and improve the management of biodiversity on land within private and communal ownership. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is partnering with the Grasslands Programme within the Forestry component to work with the relevant forestry companies to develop biodiversity stewardship agreements for appropriate unplanted areas on their properties. One of the properties with which Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is working is the Mt Gilboa Estate, owned by Mondi Shaduka Newsprint. What makes this property special is its biodiversity richness especially in terms of vegetation, species of conservation importance and water production. It has 283 ha of “critically endangered” Midlands Mistbelt Grassland and contributes a further 0.22% to the provincial target for this vegetation type. It is an important site for threatened species such as the “critically endangered” Wattled
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Crane, as well as other species typical of the KZN midlands area. The property is also strategically vital for water production in the province. The property contains the headwaters of three important river systems: the Umvoti River, the Myamvubu River which flows into the Mooi River, and the Mholweni River which flows into the Umgeni River. Associated with these river systems are extensive functional peat wetlands, which provide significant wetland functions and services, including water purification and flood attenuation. Mondi Shanduka Newsprint, owning approximately 60,000 ha of land in KZN, have in the past shown their commitment to environmental management, and are certified under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This obligation to ensuring that its management and timber production is not detrimental to the biodiversity richness on their properties has meant that they have embraced the Biodiversity Stewardship concept and worked
closely with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to secure the unplanted areas of the Mt Giboa Estate, which adjoins the Kakrloof Nature Reserve. This commitment has resulted in the Mt Gilboa Nature Reserve, being a 725 ha portion of the overall estate, officially being proclaimed under section 23 of the National Environment Management: Protected Areas Act (No 57 of 2003) on 14 January 2010. This is the first forestry property to be proclaimed as a private nature reserve within KwaZulu-Natal using the Biodiversity Stewardship mechanism, which will guarantee the conservation management on this property and is evidence that through partnerships the forestry sector can in fact contribute to biodiversity targets in KwaZulu-Natal. This has now become an example to other private forestry companies in the area and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife recognises the value of such mutually beneficial partnerships and acknowledges Mondi Shanduka Newsprint’s contribution to conservation in our province.
EZEMVELO RECOGNISES SERVICE EXCELLENCE
O
n the 28 January 2010 we had a session where we were recognizing our dedicated colleagues who have been with loyal to the organization with their dedicated services. We had two categories in this ceremony, we had the Long Service and Bravery Awards. We invited all these
colleagues to a central venue in Pietermaritzburg where we handed them certifications and gifts in recognition of their efforts towards the mandate of the organization. For the long service awards we had 5 categories as follows; 21 Years, 25 Years, 28 Years, 35 Years and 42
Years. The total number of beneficiaries for these awards is 564 and the breakdown is as follows. These awards are given the field staff for bravery in doing their duties in the parks and relate mainly to dangerous situations where they confiscate firearms used for poaching, hunting dogs and assistance with stock
theft situations particularly in the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park. These men are also responsible for the high rate of arrests and convictions related to wildlife crime. The categories in these awards are determined by the number of firearms confiscated by these field rangers and allocated accordingly.
Long service Awards Region QEP Zululand Ukhahlamba Coast Total
21 YRS 23 81 105 121 330
25 YRS 20 35 26 34 115
Categories 28 YRS 8 17 27 41 93
35 YRS 4 6 8 7 25
42 YRS 1
1
Meritorious Awards Region Isimangaliso Wetland Park Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park Tembe Elephant Park Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park Monks Cowl Cathedral Peak Overall Total
16 4 8
Categories 3 10 3 1 1 0 0
2 0 30
2 0 13
1
2
2 0 6
4
Quantity of Awards
5 1 0 0
0 0 0
29 6 8
0 1 2
1 0 1
7 1 51
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Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Community Levy Fund fostering access to rural development
MANKONJANE PRIMARY SCHOOL - ESTCOURT
T
his was a very exciting year for the Community Levy Fund Programme where we have delivered on numerous projects for the benefit of communities neighboring our parks. We have built schools, administration blocks and offices, computer centres, crèches and income generating projects which have encouraged involvement of women, youth and unemployed citizens for job creation through self
employment. We receive numerous requests from rural communities neighboring our protected areas for assistance with community development projects. We have responded to these requests as and when we can through our available resources. During the year 2009 we have been able to support the needing schools with infrastructure in the form of buildings, administration blocks to offices and computer
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centres. The fortunate ones being Ndabeni School in Manguzi, Nhlosenhle Crèche in Elanskop and Ndabenhle Crèche in St Lucia. We also helped the Nqabayensimbi Community with a poultry project to encourage their economic participation. We finally managed to deliver on the Nselweni Bush Camp project which has been pending for a considerable amount of time and a lot of resources injected
at making sure that it becomes a success. We handed this over to the relevant communities towards the end of the year in December. We have had partnerships with the private sector with involvement of Al Baraka Bank and the KwaZulu Natal Sharks Board who have been of great assistance in the endeavor to make the lives of these communities better, this collective effort is fully recognized and we are very grateful to these partners. In partnership with the KZN Sharks Board we delivered 3000 bags to twelve rural schools neighboring our protected areas. On the 27 October 2009 we handed over 1100 bags to school children in rural areas neighboring Giants Castle. During this day we had the involvement of MEC for Education in KwaZulu – Natal Mr Senzo Mchunu. We had involvement of organizations such as Boxer Super Stores, Spar, Albany Bakery, Hallmark and Embroidery, Golden Window and WWF who donated items to be put in those bags. In partnership with Al Baraka Bank we have
seen the realization of learning for our rural schools through a donation of lap desks to three (3) rural schools near Mkuze and Kosi Bay areas. They further donated 25 computers with fittings and furniture at Thibani Combined Primary School in Estcourt. We are currently working at the installation of built in computer desks and library bookshelves at Ozabeni Primary School near Sodwana Bay Nature Reserve. Moving forward with delivering on this programme we have proposed with Al Baraka Bank that we have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will assist us in ensuring that we add more value to the Community Levy Fund Programme. Through this MOU we shall be able to share the costs of these initiatives with this bank for the benefit of the communities we serve. We shall continue looking for other interested parties to work with through this programme that are going to make sure that our fund go further and add more value to the people we serve.
ZIMELE PRIMARY SCHOOL – ESTCOURT
NTOMBEMHLOPHE PRIMARY SCHOOL – MABIBI – COASTAL FOREST
NTABAMHLOPHE PRIMARY SCHOOL – ESTCOURT
THIBANE COMBINED PRIMARY SCHOOL - ESTCOURT
THIBANE COMBINED PRIMARY SCHOOL - ESTCOURT
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The Ezemvelo Cup Mdletsheni Traditional Council FC - Runners Up
T
he Ezemvelo Cup, final took place on the 16 December at Ulundi Regional Stadium in Ulundi, the overwhelming support from the communities attending the event was astonishing. The Soccer final kickoff was set for Mdletsheni Traditional Council FC and Matshamnyama Traditional Council FC and for Netball Mpukunyoni Traditional Council and Mhlana Traditional Council. Unfortunately one of these teams had to take home the win. For Soccer Mtshamnyama Traditional Council FC beat Mdletsheni Traditional Council FC by 4 goals to 1, clearly they wanted to set the record straight and prove they are the real winners. With this victory Matshamnyama Traditional Council FC received a cash prize of R10,000.00 and Gold
Medals. The first runner up was Mdletsheni Traditional Council FC who received a cash prize of R5,000.00 and Silver Medals. Second runner up Obuka Traditional Council FC received a R3,000.00 cash prize and Bronze Medals. On the Netball field, Mpukunyoni Traditional Council beat Mhlana Traditional Council by 21 goals to 18, very close win by this team as they had tough competition from Mhlana Traditional Council. But there can only be one winner taking home a cash prize of R5,000.00 and Gold medals Mpukunyoni Traditional Council. First runner up Mhlana
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Matshamnyama Traditional Council FC - Winners
Traditional Council received R3,000.00 cash prize and Silver medals. Second runner up Somopho Traditional Council received a cash prize of R2,000.00 and Bronze medals. The whole tournament was a success and attracted a lot of sponsors who came on board to
assist. The tournament organizers would like to thank all those who took part for the effort in organizing this event and the sponsors with their generousity for deciding to partner with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife We’re kicking off to Host the World Massive work is in progress at the present moment in Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in preparation to host the visitors flocking to the country during the Soccer World Cup. We are in a massive drive which we seek to ensure that all our wildlife parks and accommodation is in top form in time for the Soccer World Cup Kick – Off which is happening in June this year. Major refurbishments and
revamping of our top 8 resorts which is Didima, Midmar, Giant’s, Thendele, Ntshondwe, Mpila, Hilltop and Umlalazi is underway as we speak. We are currently doing interiors and exterior renovations, upgrades of infrastructure such as roads, signage, water reticulation and vehicle upgrades to gain a competitive advantage during the coming soccer spectacular. Parallel to this process is the grad-
ing of these resorts to 3 Star through the tourism grading council of South Africa to ensure that our clients from abroad are sure that they will indeed get the best service from our resorts. We are also planning on hosting commercial public viewing areas at our Midmar and Umlalazi resorts which will be used to promote our facilities to guests who are unable to go to the match locations as well
as promote local brands coming from the areas neighbouring protected areas. To further leverage on this opportunity we have contracted MATCH Hospitality AG which has the exclusive rights for handling all accommodation and travelling arrangements by FIFA to sell our accommodation on our behalf for this period.
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Soccer Friday Campaign Launch EZEMVELO KZN Wildlife launched its Soccer Friday Campaign in support of Bafana Bafana in gearing up for the FIFA World Cup that will take place in African soil for the very first time come June this year. In this event, which as held at the Head Quarters of Ezemvelo in Pietermaritzbug on Friday 18 February 2010, Dr Bandile Mkhize, the CEO, urged all Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff members to rally behind Bafana Bafana in the endeavor to surprise the world in this World Cup. Dr Mkhize also announced that Ezemvelo
KZN Wildlife will play a pivotal role in welcoming visitors from all over the World. He emphasized that tourist will come in large numbers in protected areas; therefore it is very important for staff members to offer them a warm welcome. ³I am told that 5 participating countries opted to stay in our province. We must make sure that they visit our protected areas. If they enjoy our hospitality, definitely they will come back after the World Cup. We must also attract the countries that will be based in Gauteng to come down to KZN, Dr Mkhize said.
After that there was an unveiling of flags for all participating countries. This was part of urging staff members to support other countries in order to make friendship. Later on the day,
staff members went to Midmar Dam where they were entertained by feast of soccer matches that were intended to create hype about the upcoming event.
Towards a delivery orientated organisation Strategy In our last two editions of Inkanyezi we talked about a lot of thing where we familiarised ourselves with strategy and why do we need such a tool for the functioning of our organisation. We have gone a long way at ensuring that our strategy is in line with our resources, we produced a strategy MAP which talks to the organisation as a whole. We are currently in the process of implementation of this strategy with the finalisation of the Cluster Strategies and
Balanced Score Cards for each department to ensure that we deliver in accordance with our strategy. Please familiarise yourself with the strategy document so that you know what is expected of you as a member of Ezemvelo.
Corporate Structure We have also gone a long way at ensuring that our corporate structure is in line with our strategy, we have had proposals for alignment of our structure from all business units within the organisation.
This process is now at a very advanced stage and awaits approval from the Board for implementation. On approval by the Board implementation will commence as fast as possible.
Enterprise Resource Planning This project is moving with great speed and has been named Project CatERPpillar, some of the components like the Point of Sale, Property Management and Reservations are already live. It is anticipated that the ‘go live’ date for the rest
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of the tools which involve finance, procurement and other deliverables will be 26 April 2010.
Website and Intranet upgrade You might have noticed that our website and intranet have undergone a major revamp, this is in line with the standards of today. We have gone with a different look and feel but your favourite content is still on the sites, more functionalities have been added to the website for ease of convenience and better browsing.
iMfolozi APU Members Visits SAPS NIU Base
SOCCER FRIDAY WINNERS
On 30 December 2009 the iMfolozi Anti Poaching Unit APU sent 2 of its members, namely APU Officer A Thembe and Corporal Z Myeni to the SAPS National Intervention Unit NIU Base near Pinetown. The APU was invited to the base by the Head of Training Inspector A Boshoff and were given an insight onto how this specialized police unit operates, trains and motivates its employees. It was a great opportunity fot the APU members to share ideas and to gain insight into some of the specialized equipment as well as training tactics used by members of SAPS NIU. This kind of interaction between specialised units of the SAPS and EKZNW is very good for cross pollenation of ideas and law enforcement strategies and serves to build partnerships for possible joint law enforcement operations in the future”said Lawrence Munro – Senior
Ranger APU. The iMfolozi APU hopes to foster this relationship towards a mutually beneficial arena for training and knowledge acquisition”. he added
uKhahlamba Drakensberg Soccer Team, winners of the Soccer Friday Launch game held at Midmar Resort on th19th February 2010.
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