HIP entrance fee increase suspended

After recently announcing the doubling of entrance fees for visitors into Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park (HIP), KZN Wildlife yesterday announced the suspension thereof.

Had KZN Wildlife pressed ahead with entrance fee increases, South African tourists would have had to pay R150 at the gate and international visitors R300 from 20 September 2013. The reason for such increases being an increase in labour and associated costs. KZN Wildlife explained in a statement that, as a state-funded organisation, it is "expected to supplement its subsidy through commercial operations. Admissions revenue is one such source of additional funds that make it possible for Ezemvelo to carry out its mandate." 

While no statement has been issued on when in the future such increases will take place, it is was made public earlier this year that KZN Wildlife may well see it's central government funding dramatically decrease. One fears, therefore, that such price increases are imminent.

Mtubatuba Municipality dirtiest in district

File photo: overturned bins at Cape Vidal's fish gutting table

Having been labelled Mkhanyakude District's dirtiest municipality for some time now, Mtubatuba is taking steps to clean up its act.

Keen to achieve its end goal of becoming known as one of the cleanest municipalities in the district, Mtubatuba held a 'Mtuba clean town summit' at Umfolozi's Protea Hotel on Thursday, 5 September. According to Environmental Affairs and Agriculture representative KP Mathenjwa, the current state of the town does nothing for tourism in the region which is home to South Africa's first World Heritage Site.

As a first step in its journey to cleanliness, Mtubatuba Municipality recently established a waste management unit which will oversee effective waste disposal. One of the biggest problems facing the municipality and its clean-up drive is illegal dumping and, unfortunately, both of the municipality's waste disposal sites, St Lucia and Northdale, are illegal dumping sites. The St Lucia site will soon be closed down. This leaves the Municipality in a quandry.

St Lucia News has, on more than one occasion, raised the question of burning at the St Lucia dumping site as well as establishing an effective recycling scheme. Unfortunately, however, these questions have continuously gone unanswered by authorities involved. The hope now is that the Mtubatuba Municipality will indeed receive adequate funding in order to clean up Mtubatuba town, establish legal dumping sites at suitable locations and implement an effective recycling scheme across the municipality. St Lucia News will not give up hope that oneday this World Heritage Site will have the same waste disposal and recycling tools that every suburb in the country enjoys.