Estate Living Magazine Develop - Issue 44 August 2019 | Page 14

C I O N M
V E
M S U T N &
I T Y d e L v I e V l I O N P G
LAND REFORM AND
PRIVATE
INVESTMENT
CAN GO HAND IN HAND
Combining a successful land claim, community development, hard-nosed economic opportunity,
responsible conservation ethics, and a fabulous tourist destination, Mdluli Safari Lodge is a win-
win-win-winner.
While land claims can be controversial – and even emotive –
issue, it can, if well managed, create jobs and equitable economic
opportunity. This is exactly what transpired with Mdluli, a one-of-its-
kind Section 12J project situated in one of the most iconic wildlife
areas in the world – the Kruger National Park.
Some background
Back in the bad old days in 1960s apartheid South Africa, the
Mdluli community were forcibly removed from their land inside
the borders of the Kruger National Park. But then, after the dawn of
democracy in 1994, the Mdluli community instituted a land claim
process to secure freehold title to the 850 hectares from which they
had been alienated. It took a while – as these things do – but today
the land is theirs, registered under the Mdluli Community Trust.