You can see the staff at Safari Plains lodge are smiling even though they’re wearing masks. Their grins crinkle the material and light up their eyes as they welcome their first guests in five long, lonely and financially disastrous months.
This small lodge in Mabula Private Game Reserve in Limpopo took the brave decision to reopen on August 5 despite Covid-19 infections still rising. It was one of the first lodges to do so, bringing back all 43 staff even though its 20 guest suites are mostly empty.
Reopening when the ban on interprovincial leisure travel was still in place was a financial gamble. Low bookings won’t cover the operating costs, and as much as people are restless to travel, disposable income is scarce, with the lockdown destroying jobs and slashing wages. Resident manager Leon de Wit reckons it was worth the risk.
“It’s more expensive to open for just a few guests than to stay closed because the income doesn’t cover the salaries and running costs so we can’t break even,” he says.
“But if you’re closed you’re losing everything because there’s no revenue at all. The logic is that the risk is worth the reward, because we’re quite confident that as soon as people can move around we’ll probably be busy. But we’re all on reduced salaries. Full recovery will be when everybody is back on normal salaries, and I can’t see that happening until next year.”
Senior safari guide Elias Mangwane is delighted to be back, even on lower pay, with the lodge providing his meals and accommodation again. More than that, his spirit soars as he drives around reconnecting with the animals and the land that feed his soul.
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As a giraffe elegantly bends to drink from the waterhole in front of the lodge, I joke that we don’t need a game drive because the animals are coming to look for the long-absent humans instead. Soon we find a cluster of tsessebes, enormous hippos lying on a riverbank to warm in the winter sun and rhino standing in line like they’re posing for photos.
Mangwane talks with the relish of a man deprived of something he loves for too long, and that revival is reflected by all the staff. Barman William Tlhoele designed attractive alcohol-free cocktails during the prohibition, chef Dion Andersen overfed me with five months of pent-up creativity to express and beautician Ester Makunyane eagerly flexed her fingers again to give a wonderful massage.
Safari Plains was bought, refurbished and reopened as a five-star lodge by travel company Extraordinary only a year ago. It had just turned profitable when the lockdown struck. Negotiations with the staff saw everyone agree to take their annual leave during the initial 21-day lockdown, so salaries were paid. When the lockdown lingered, the government’s tourism relief fund paid their wages, but covered only 40% of their previous income for most.
With the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) now drying up, many companies will have to put employees on unpaid leave. “When there’s no revenue there’s no way to pay everybody,” De Wit says.
But nobody at Safari Plains has been retrenched yet, and now they’re earning again.
More than R68bn in revenue has already been lost, at a rate of R748m a day, and an estimated 600,000 jobs will disappear
The lockdown has wrecked SA’s travel trade, and the carnage continues. The Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) believes more than R68bn in revenue has already been lost, at a rate of R748m a day, and an estimated 600,000 jobs will disappear.
Foreign guests are vital, because it costs the country’s 496 private game lodges an average of R500,000 each per month just to survive. A survey conducted by the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) in June found that 16% feared they wouldn’t have the cash flow to survive beyond July, 36% felt they could survive until September, and another 34% expected to run out of cash by December unless tourism is reopened.
“These lodges will slowly close their doors over the next six months as cash flow runs out,” Satsa says. That would destroy 33,625 jobs and wipe out the R3.7bn they spend annually on salaries, procurement, conservation and community projects.
De Wit hopes the early reopening of Safari Plains will save it from being one of the victims. The lodge already had a strong local clientele, and its rates have been lowered to attract restless, cooped-up Joburgers now they can hit the road again. That could keep it from going under until big-spending foreigners return.
De Wit, his wife, Hilda, and a lodge manager stayed on during the lockdown and used the opportunity for painting, varnishing and vehicle maintenance. In the absence of humans, monkeys cavorted on the sunloungers and buffalo broke a fence to reach the irrigated grass. A leopard drank from the swimming pool, and one serious mishap saw a giraffe tumble on the wooden deck and flail around a while.
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When the 21-day hard lockdown was extended, De Wit brought the sun loungers inside, covered the furniture with dust covers, zipped up the canvas-covered bedroom suites and donated surplus food to local farm workers.
The biggest threat in the absence of humans is to the wildlife, with hungry communities tempted to snare for bushmeat and professional poachers enjoying the lack of human eyes around their hunting grounds.
“Our biggest concern is our rhinos so our anti-poaching teams stayed here and were even more active than usual,” says Isiah Banda, Mabula’s assistant reserve manager.
“Some of the neighbours experienced poaching and we got warnings that poachers may be active, but we were very lucky that we never experienced it. We didn’t close the reserve completely and send everybody home like other places did, so we were always here. And cameras all over our roads can identify vehicles that are suspicious.”
Mabula is also remarkably free of snaring, even though neighbouring farms are being targeted. Banda thinks Mabula suffers less because of its work with local communities.
On public holidays, schoolchildren are taken on game drives to learn about the importance of animals and conservation. “Most of these kids have never seen a rhino, elephant or lions so you’re giving them something they’ve never experienced, and they spread our message for us. That makes a big difference because the kids tell their parents how special these animals are. If someone is doing bad things they’ll get the message that they’re doing wrong,” he says.
Now reclusive creatures such as aardvark, aardwolf, porcupines and brown hyena are being seen more frequently around Safari Plains. Jackals are heard every night and bird life has increased exponentially, says De Wit. “As soon as human behaviour slows down they become more confident because we are the apex predator.”
Banda believes the animals not only notice the lack of humans but actually miss us. “We’ve seen crocs walking on the roads during the day, which I’d never seen before, and cheetah coming to the lodge to find out why it’s so quiet. It’s a sign that the animals were bored,” he says. “It gave us a chance to find out whether we are enemies and don’t like each other, but I’ve seen that animals miss people and people miss animals. We both miss each other.”
Stones was a guest of Safari Plains.
For details see safariplains.co.za.
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