The Impala runs through the thorn, the ibis flies over the lake and lightning forks on the horizon as a storm enters from the Drakensberg mountains.
Visitors traversing 10,000 hectares or more of the Nambiti Game Reserve in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal see what they think is an unchanging and unalterable natural landscape.
Njabulo Hodla, the reserve manager of the reserve, sees something else: thickening undergrowth that someone has to cut down, tracks that need to be cleared, fences to be repaired and animals that will have to be sacrificed, victims of Covid. “It’s hard, very hard. I’ve never seen a season like this, ”said the 31-year-old, who has worked at Nambiti since 2008.
Across the continent, Covid has hit more in South Africa with more than a million confirmed cases and 29,000 deaths according to official figures. Like anywhere else in Africa, the pandemic has caused massive economic damage, with thousands of companies failing and tens of millions unable to make a living. The economy released 2.2 million jobs in the second quarter of 2020.
Map of the Nambiti reserve
The huge tourism industry, which employs one in 20 workers and provides just under 3% of GDP, has been devastated.
Once the December holiday season meant tens of thousands of foreign visitors spending hundreds, even thousands, of dollars every day. Now, with the rate of new infections in the country rising as authorities struggle to control a second wave, no one expects tourists to return soon.
South Africa’s more than 500 private gaming reserves are often found in more remote and impoverished areas of the country. He spends considerable amounts each month to feed and care for the animals. Many have been forced to close permanently, lay off staff and sell, or even shoot, animals. Others have survived, only.
“Reservations like ours went from pretty nice incomes that supported 300 jobs and a massive conservation project to literally nothing. We have fallen off a wall, “said Clarke Smith, president of Nambiti.” We still feel the pain … and the impact on the region is very marked. “
Nambiti is a community-owned project, unlike many, so a substantial proportion of the profits and an annual lease are paid to the local people. This year, that income is going down a lot, and with so many reserve employees still having reduced hours or at home, the next few months will be very difficult.
“Instead of a year-end bonus, people only take half a salary, or nothing,” said Hodla, who grew up in one of the nearby villages. “The communities here are ready. Reservation plays an important role. Everyone knows someone who works here. “
Many fear that if the crisis continues for many more months, hundreds of thousands of hectares in South Africa converted into more lucrative game reserves in recent decades will return to livestock or grain farming, with massive habitat loss. for endangered animals and other species.
But if the wildlife conservation business has been severely affected, so has the safeguarding of other parts of the country’s heritage.
Like many parts of rural South Africa, northern KwaZulu province suffered from acute unemployment, massive health problems, including tuberculosis and HIV, and deep poverty even before the pandemic. Industries have been destroyed in recent decades, with many mines and factories closed.
In some places, these losses have been partially offset by what has been a booming trade in battlefield tourism. Tens of thousands of British visitors have come to visit the places where British troops fought the Zulus in the bloody 1879 war that consolidated the imperial capture of South 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 history of the catastrophic British defeat and the last place in the places.
This winter, or summer in the southern hemisphere, both battlefields are “empty,” monuments, tombs, and museums abandoned.
“There is no work. We are sitting there. The situation is so bad. There is drought and no crops in our fields, and a sack of flour [maize flour] it costs twice as much as in the spring, ”said Dalton Ngobese, a local guide, who has not worked since March.
With the missing tourists, there is also a lack of street vendors selling ethnic boats, snacks and water. Part of the entrance fee to the battlefield goes to schools, so this source of income has also dried up.
Accommodation has been closed for much of the summer and has recently reopened, welcoming far fewer guests. The lodges offer jobs and also fund support programs for local students, charities, orphanages and other projects.
“If we suffer, the whole community takes a hit,” said Shane Evans, manager of the Isandlwana Lodge, which hosted groups touring the battlefield.
In the village of Isandlwana there is renunciation. With so little work locally, men have traditionally traveled to Johannesburg, a six-hour drive north, to work in mines or, more recently, hotels. But both industries also suffer and most of the Isandlwana residents who had jobs have lost them.
Government aid has been erratic and has placed a huge burden on a country still struggling with the legacies of the repressive and racist apartheid regime. The ruling African National Congress, which has ruled since 1994, is accused of incompetence and corruption, but it also faces an insinuated economy, tens of millions of people in poverty and massive debt. A job support program is guaranteed until the end of the year, but the money is slow to arrive.
One consequence in the villages around Isandlwana is that crime is on the rise, with theft and cattle theft getting worse, Ngobese said. A recent drought has meant that local battlefield communities have been unable to plant crops that traditionally supplement income and diet.
Nellie Buthelezi’s husband was one of those fired by the local government due to job cuts earlier this year, while the hostel where she works has been closed since March. The 41-year-old mother, 41, has lived in Isandlwana all her life and doesn’t remember the times being so bad.
“The food is expensive and goes very fast. We have no money to rent, “he told Observer. “We just hope for God a better new year.”