Nov 20, 2013 | 8:24 AM |by SAPA |
The Cybele Forest Lodge and Health Spa outside Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, has been closed down following the enforcement of a land claim.
Land handed over to the Manzimhlophe community
The 120-hectare property on which Cybele is built was bought by the rural development and land reform department for R17 million and handed over to the Manzimhlophe community on March 13, a Sapa correspondent reported.
The luxury lodge, established in 1979, closed at midday on Sunday.
45 staff members lost their jobs
Lodge director Rupert Jeffries said in a statement, that government's "failure" to find a strategic partner to run the lodge together with the community, would result in all 45 staff members losing their jobs.
A media release from Jeffries noted that some of the staff have been employed at the lodge for well over 20 years.
“What is particularly distressing, is that the Government has completely failed in their objectives towards the well-being of the Manzimhlophe community. We requested meetings, engagements and commitments from them in respect of a suitable and efficient hand-over of the hotel, and a further purchase of all hotel fittings and moveable assets prior to the finalisation of the sale agreement between us and the Government almost a year ago.
''None of this effort yielded any result. Sporadic efforts on their part to find a hospitality or strategic partner to run the lodge together with the community, have all faltered.”
No furniture, equipment, staff or bookings
The community has been left with an empty shell to work with.
"The Manzimhlophe community will inherit the lodge with no furniture, equipment, staff or bookings," Jeffries said.
"This is a very unhappy ending for a well-known South African brand that has been established around the world for 34 years. With no hotel management help anywhere in sight, or funding for the community, the reality is that the community will simply inherit a completely empty lodge that will become (irrevocably) derelict in a very short space of time. The forest timber plantations, an integral feature of the character of the lodge - will not continue to stand for much longer.”
Meeting arranged between claimants and an investor
Department spokesman Mtobeli Mxotwa said the ministry was helping the community enter into a partnership agreement with investors.
"There was an agreement that the community partner with the landowner and receive benefits, but this did not fly, after the property was transferred to the claimants, due to unacceptable demands put forward by the previous owner."
He said a meeting had been arranged between the claimants and an investor who had shown "keen interest".
"The department will never allow the economy of our country to collapse. As such it will persevere in its efforts to make this Mpumalanga tourism venture thrive once more and return to its international glory."
Land claim beneficiaries need to receive maximum benefits from restitution
Democratic Alliance provincial leader Anthony Benadie said in a statement that beneficiaries of land claims needed to receive maximum benefits from restitution.
"Sadly, this is not the case, and once again an entire community's hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow were dashed by a government unwilling or incapable of securing the necessary arrangements to ensure a prosperous future," he claimed.
According to Land Claims Commission statistics, 77 334 land restitution claims had been settled in South Africa by March 2013, benefiting 368 090 households and 1 803 984 people.
In Mpumalanga some 2 848 claims, involving 490 964 hectares of land, had been settled.
In August, the government agreed to pay R1 billion for the 13 3000 hectare Mala Mala Game Reserve in Mpumalanga, the biggest land claim agreement in South African history.
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