Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa – Investment and Employment - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 249

could at present be in the range of $78-88 million for the whole cluster. The
'cluster', as previously mentioned, includes the five categories of enterprise either
within the reserve or outside but proximal to the reserve fences.
There are insufficient comparative data elsewhere in the tourism sector to
make comparisons between Madikwe and other large wildlife reserves.
Nonetheless there are plans to extend the reserve and the research data may
provide a basis for socioeconomic scenario plans. The creation of the Heritage
Park (approaching 300,000ha in extent), linking MGR with Pilanesberg some
80km distant, will continue to provide a strong stimulus to the expansion of these
reserves (Boonzaier and Lourens, 2002). This Heritage Park appears to offer the
best long-term prospects for land use, employment and poverty alleviation in the
local economy. It will have a variety of areas with low to high tourism densities and
a mixture of leisure activities. A core corridor will provide the means for larger
game species to migrate between the two reserves.
Total formal employment (within the geographic locale) has risen to 773
persons from 539 in 2003. This is likely to be an underestimate given that, other
than the additions for new lodges, only six new jobs (in the SMME category)
were added to the 2003 employment figures. Within the whole Madikwe cluster,
local employees held 74.5 per cent of the total jobs in the cluster and earned 48.4
per cent of the total cluster remuneration by value (Table 12.1).
Business linkages between lodges and local service providers remain weak,
unlike those experienced in countries such as The Gambia where Ashley (2006)
recently reported that poor members of the population derived more benefit from
the supply chain to tourism than direct sales or employment. Handicraft sales were
also cited by Ashley as an important component of poor peoples' economies. From
current and previous research (Relly, 2004b) in Madikwe there is little evidence of
handicraft production/sale playing any role in the local economy. However, most
lodges have curio shops or kiosks and the benefits from handicraft sales arise in
communities in Zimbabwe, Namibia, east Africa and elsewhere in South Africa.
Some transport providers ferry employees to and from local villages and there are
a few suppliers of firewood collected under concessions. Laundry services are also
offered by a few enterprises outside the reserve. The most significant service
provider is a company engaged to manage the various access gates at the reserve. It
employed 25 per cent of total employees in the SMME category and probably a
similar percentage in 2007. The earnings of all SMME employees in the cluster
amounted to 5 per cent of the total annual earnings for the cluster in 2003 (Relly,
2004b, p384) and this figure is not likely to have changed substantially. Madikwe
still remains (other than direct employment at lodges) a fairly limited market to
employment for the surrounding small enterprise economy. This is to say that the
employment multipliers in the local supply chains are low considering the size of
the inner-reserve economy. Whilst this is a common phenomenon at many destina-
tions in South Africa in particular, with similar findings elsewhere in the country,
the supply chains would have to be thoroughly understood to assess where and
how much of the benefit accrues to poorer people. It is probable that where it does,
it is likely mostly to occur outside of the geographic area of MGR.