News

QwaQwa park merger put on hold over land invasion

August 28, 2006 Edition 2

Melanie Gosling

People have settled in the QwaQwa National Park, in the Free State, where they have built homes and brought about 1 000 head of cattle and other livestock into the park to graze.

Fences have been broken, buildings and infrastructure are being stripped and game is being hunted.

Now South African National Parks (SANP), which manages the adjacent Golden Gate National Park, has put on hold plans for the amalgamation of the two parks. QwaQwa is run by the Free State's nature conservation department.

Last week, SANP chief operating officer, Sydney Soundy, told the parliamentary portfolio committee on environmental affairs and tourism: "There is poaching at QwaQwa, but we can't get involved in their problems of lack of management."

Simon Leach, a professional hunter, said the park had not been properly marketed.

"It is big at 23 000ha, whereas Golden Gate is only 6 500ha. I helped do a game count in 2000 and we counted 800 black wildebeest and 2 800 eland. That's a lot of game. It's not that the staff aren't dedicated, they haven't got the money to run it properly."

There was huge unemployment in the former QwaQwa homeland surrounding the park. Factories had closed because of Chinese imports.

"The park should not go to SANP … It should get a proper budget so the Free State can earn revenue from it. If it were marketed properly, it could do so well," Leach said.

The Free State conservation department was not available for comment.

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