Durban and Pietermaritzburg will soon have a new big five game reserve within half an hour’s drive from their metropolitan areas.
An artist’s (Varaross) impression of one of the luxury homes at Mayibuye.
Plans for the Mayibuye Community Game Reserve in Camperdown, situated halfway between the two cities, have been approved and construction has started on the gatehouse and services to the first housing development.
The project will comprise three boutique lodges, 210 luxury houses and 120 life-style units. By October this year, the perimeter fencing will be in place and game introductions will follow, with giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, kudu and other buck being the first species, followed by the big five.
The reserve, which currently covers 4 600ha, will eventually stretch from Camperdown to Inanda Dam in the east and up to the Wartburg area in the north. The reserve will have historic significance as it sees the reintroduction of wild elephant to the region for the first time in 150 years.
Mayibuye comprises land taken away from the residents in forced removals during the apartheid era and successfully claimed back through the Land Commission by the 445 displaced members of the Mayibuye Community Trust.
region for the first time in 150 years.
“The development of Mayibuye sees the creation of a new interface between community upliftment, conservation and commerce and is being endorsed by both Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and the Department of Environmental Affairs as the new blueprint for conservation and community upliftment,” commented Peter Kennedy of BFG Retail.
“One may ask what retail has to do with a game reserve, but we are aiming to empower the community not only by providing jobs through the construction phase of the reserve as well as running the various aspects of the project, but through the BFG Retail factory. Already, a large majority of our staff are from the Mayibuye community; however, they have to travel to our Pinetown premises to work.”
To eliminate the ‘migrant labour’ issue, BFG is in the process of renovating an additional 2000m sq factory situated on the Mayibuye Game Reserve, as the first stage of its relocation to the project. This is forecast to be operational by September 2014 and by November 2015, BFG’s principle operation will have moved to Mayibuye. It is partnering the Mayibuye Community through an Equity Trust established by BFG (25% stake in BFG) and will see the creation of between 150 -200 new jobs by the same date.
Mayibuye social upliftment projects are already operational with three crèches providing two meals per day to over 200 children.
Mayibuye also represents the realisation of elephant whisperer Lawrence Anthony’s belief that game reserves can only be sustainable with community involvement. In 2008, Peter Kennedy introduced Lawrence to the land-claim site that they both agreed would make a spectacular game reserve, and together with Lawrence’s colleagues, conservationist, David Bozas and Yvette Taylor of The Earth Org, they started planning this pioneering project on the simple exchange – the community commits their land to conservation in return for education and opportunity.
