CONSERVATION LESSONS from the past

THE RUSTENBURG GAME RESERVE

In many ways the proclamation of this reserve in 1909 on the personal initiative of the Colonial Secretary of the time, none other than Jan Smuts himself, whilst noble and farsighted, was doomed to failure from the beginning.

The Transvaal Land Owners’ Association, in general bemoaning the lack of consultation surrounding the creation of the reserve, raised the following issues at the outset ( a ):

❶ The Association only became aware of the existence of the reserve from the Government Gazette in which the official proclamation appeared.

❷ A total of 140 farms, the property of members of the Association, were included within the area proclaimed.

❸ Wild dogs and other ‘vermin’ were on the increase and disrupting farming operations.

❹ The reserves’ western boundary formed by the Marico and then Limpopo rivers, a distance of approximately 120 miles, was passable for most of the year. This afforded Chief Linchwe and his people from Bechuanaland the opportunity to hunt on the Transvaal side of the border where they had a number of ‘cattle posts’.

❺ Settlers on either side of the northern boundary, the Matlabas River, were accustomed to ‘living off the land’ whenever and wherever an opportunity presented itself.

❻ The intention to appoint only four to six police constables to patrol an area of some 9 000 square miles was woefully inadequate.

“Smuts’ objective in creating the reserve and appointing a warden appeared the only