A place of healing, it is evident how much love the Flack family has poured into these beautiful gardens over the years – sharing an incredible resource with the community.
In 2000 Danna and Chick Flack bought the property, then Fern Valley Estate, that surrounded their private home on three sides. There was no plan for what to do with the beautiful gardens initially, however the opportunity seemed too good to pass up on. Danna immediately conflated her love of gardening and her work with the disability community into the dream of creating a world-class garden and property that was completely accessible to persons with mobility impairments.
Chick, who had moved down from Zimbabwe with Danna in 1975 with not much more than their clothes and personal belongings, built up a successful business in the finance sector. Over the years it had become habitual for Chick to make Danna’s dreams come true, and this purchase was no exception. Chick was also recently retired and ready for a new challenge, and so Makaranga was born – named as such after the Makaranga tribe from Zimbabwe, Danna’s country of birth, and for the Macaranga capensis trees that line the main avenue in the 30-acre garden.
For 21 years the Flack family has poured significant blood, sweat and private funding into developing and maintaining the Makaranga that people have grown to know and love, and shared this incredible resource with the community. Makaranga was designed for complete accessibility, being the first hotel in South Africa where a disability architect was involved to enable wheelchair users access to every part of the hotel and gardens. For years the Flack family has supported and given as much assistance as possible to persons with disabilities who couldn’t afford to visit or just needed to enjoy a break. Makaranga was, and is, designed as a place of healing.
A lesser-known fact is that the hotel and gardens are owned, at Danna and Chick’s behest, by a not-for-profit Charitable Trust. The Flack family donated a significant amount of money in their personal capacities to the Trust to upgrade the gardens and develop the hotel. The family, alongside two professionals, sit as the trustees but not beneficiaries of the Trust – the beneficiaries of the trust can only be bona fide registered charities.
The Makaranga Charitable Trust opened in 2002 as a little 10-bedroom lodge with a quiet tea garden, but by the time COVID-19 and lockdown happened, it had more than doubled in capacity to a 23-sleeper lodge with four conference and function rooms and a bustling restaurant. These trading aspects of Makaranga existed solely to contribute to the enormous cost of maintaining and improving the gardens and property. Makaranga has never received government support despite being a jewel in the crown of KZN tourism, it has always been privately owned and funded. Many thought it was a public park because of the unfettered access that was given for the use the gardens and swimming pool; a privilege which was unfortunately abused by some. Despite this, the gardens have offered a respite to many, have witnessed many an engagement, have offered a sanctuary for grief, and a platform for celebrations. People have wheeled their children in prams, their dying loved ones in their hospital beds, their ill, injured or ailing in wheelchairs along the wide paths and around the many waterways. The garden really is the lead role in the Makaranga story; it is her “why” – her reason for being.
The ramifications of the pandemic since March 2020 have created such loss – financial loss, loss to the gardens’ people and loss to the extended Makaranga family. Makaranga has been in a fight for her survival. Without having had the normal revenue to contribute to the expense of keeping the property and gardens in top condition, the board of trustees had to act decisively to save Makaranga and secure her future.
Makaranga was too large to just keep opening and shutting in response to the ever-changing landscape of government enforced restrictions. In evaluating other opportunities that have greater viability in a restriction-heavy environment, the board decided to engage in short to medium term private rentals as a viable stop gap to try cover costs and basic overheads for the gardens. The board is also fully engaged in the process of deciding on what the best possible future for Makaranga looks like. There are several iterations under discussion, and this is not an easy or a simple decision.
A reopening date is not yet known, nor is there clarity of what Makaranga will be like in the future. However, the board do know that their desire remains strong to preserve the gardens along with their aspiration to keep Makaranga as a place of healing. Danna’s remarks are touching, “The garden needs all of you, she misses you as much as you miss her.”