Impalas run through the thorn bush, ibis fly above the lake and lightning fork over the horizon as a storm flows in from the Drakensberg.
Visitors who drive over 10,000 hectares or more of the Nambiti Game Reserve in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa see what they think is an unchanged and unchanging natural landscape.
Njabulo Hodla, the reserve’s assistant manager, sees something different: thickening of undergrowth that someone has to cut off, tracks that need to be cleaned, fences to repair and animals that eventually have to be culled, each a victim of Covid. “It’s hard, really hard. I have never seen such a season, ”said the 31-year-old, who has worked at Nambiti since 2008.
Across the continent, Covid has hit South Africa the hardest with more than a million confirmed cases and 29,000 deaths according to official figures. As elsewhere in Africa, the pandemic has caused great economic damage, with thousands of businesses failing and tens of millions unable to make money. The economy shook off 2.2 million jobs in the second quarter of 2020.
Nambiti Reservation Map
The large tourism industry – which employs about one in every 20 workers and produces just under 3% of GDP – has been devastated.
Once during the December holidays, tens of thousands of foreign visitors spent hundreds, even thousands of dollars every day. No one expects tourists to return soon, with the increase in new infections in the country as the authorities struggle to control a second wave.
South Africa’s approximately 500 private game reserves are often located in more remote and impoverished parts of the country. They spend significant amounts every month to feed and care for animals. Many were forced to close permanently, lay off staff and sell animals, or even shoot. Others survived – only.
‘Reserves like ours have literally done nothing of a reasonable income that supported 300 jobs and a massive conservation project. We fell off a wall, “said Clarke Smith, chairman of Nambiti. “We are still feeling the pain … and the impact on the region is very noticeable.”
Nambiti is a community project, unlike many, a significant portion of the profits and an annual lease are paid to local towns. This year, this income is significantly reduced, and with many employees of the reserve who are even fewer hours or at home, the coming months will be very difficult.
“Instead of a bonus at the end of the year, people only take half a salary or nothing,” said Hodla, who grew up in one of the nearby towns. ‘The communities here are just at stake. The reserve plays a big role. Everyone knows someone who works here. ”
Many fear that if the crisis continues for many months, hundreds of thousands of hectares across South Africa that have been converted into more profitable game reserves in recent decades will return to cattle or grain farming – with a huge loss of habitat for endangered animals and other species.
But if nature conservation activities have gone bad, it is also protecting other parts of the country’s heritage.
As in many parts of South Africa, the north of the KwaZulu province has suffered from acute unemployment, massive health problems, including TB and HIV, and deep poverty, even before the pandemic. Industries have been thwarted in recent decades, with many mines and factories closed.
In some places, such losses are partially offset by a booming battlefield tourism trade. Tens of thousands of British visitors came to visit the sites where British troops fought Zulus in the bloody war of 1879 that consolidated the imperial grip on southern Africa.
The battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift are the main attraction for British tourists who are usually old enough to be fans of the 1964 film. Zulu which dramatized the story of the catastrophic British defeat and last stand on the sites.
This winter – or summer in the southern hemisphere – both battlefields are “empty”, the memorials, tombs and museums abandoned.
“There is no work. We’re just sitting there. The situation is so bad. There is drought and no crops in our lands, and a bag of maize [maize flour] costs twice as much as in the spring, ”said Dalton Ngobese, a local guide, who has not worked since March.
With the tourists gone, so are the hawkers who have sold ethnic crafts, snacks and water. A portion of the entrance fee to the battlefield site goes to schools, so this revenue has dried up as well.
The accommodation lodges were closed for most of the summer and only recently reopened and welcomed far fewer guests. The lodges provide employment and also fund support programs for local students, charities, orphanages and other projects.
“When we suffer, the whole community beats,” says Shane Evans, manager of the Isandlwana Lodge, which hosts groups visiting the battlefield.
In the town of Isandlwana there is resignation. With so few jobs locally, men have traditionally traveled to Johannesburg, a six-hour drive north, to work in mines or, more recently, in hotels. But both industries also suffer from it and most Isandlwana residents who had jobs lost it.
Government aid was troublesome and a major burden for a country that continues to fight the legacies of the racist, oppressive apartheid regime. The ruling African National Congress, which has been in power since 1994, is accused of incompetence and corruption, but also has an economy that is flagging, millions of people in poverty and huge debt. A job support program is guaranteed until the end of the year, but money comes slowly.
One consequence in the villages around Isandlwana is that crime is on the rise, with livestock theft and housebreaking getting worse, Ngobese said. A recent drought has meant that local communities around the battlefields have not been able to plant the crops that traditionally supplement the income and diet.
Nellie Buthelezi’s husband was among those fired by local government earlier this year for heavy work, while the lodge where he works has been closed since March. The 41-year-old mother of four has lived in Isandlwana all her life and can not remember her times ever being so bad.
“Food is expensive and it goes so fast. We have no money to rent, “she said. Observer. “We are just hoping for God for a better new year.”