A recent oversight inspection by the Democratic Alliance (DA) of the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) Pongola Nature Reserve has highlighted the sad decline of what could be a world-class conservation site.

Essentially left to rot, the reserve fronts the 17 000-hectare Pongolapoort Lake, which is one of the biggest freshwater systems in South Africa and the only system that supports the ferocious Tiger Fish. (Watch the oversight video here: https://youtu.be/4ugjiEFWmG8).

Tiger Fishing and associated game and tourism initiatives remain one of the biggest job creators in the Umkhanyakude District – which continues to rank as one of the poorest districts in our province. Yet the ongoing failure by EKZNW to upgrade facilities in provincial conservation facilities have all but killed visitor numbers to the Nature reserve.

Oversight has revealed how Ezemvelo has let its facilities and campsite fall apart, with broken ablutions, overgrown campsites and collapsed roofs the order of the day. Electrical fittings have seemingly not worked in months, while fallen trees litter the campsite. (view here, here and here)

Interviews with local conservation experts have further revealed the large-scale poaching of fish stocks with gill nets continues unabated. Nets as long as 300 meters continue to be retrieved from the lake system, with tons of fish being lost on a monthly basis.

Questions to KZN Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) MEC, Ravi Pillay, have now revealed that Ezemvelo will not patrol or curb any poaching on the lake surface - delegating responsibility to the National Department of Water and Sanitation.

The national department is seemingly just as ineffective in protecting the lake. Had it not been for the SAPS Water Wing and its recent valiant actions against poachers, South Africa’s unique fish and its associated tourism value would slowly be decimated.

The DA will continue to work with local conservationists to bring pressure on the government to step up and make the conservation of Pongolapoort Lake a priority.

 

Issued by DA KZN Spokesperson on EDTEA. Heinz de Boer, MPL