CHAPTER 1: EARLY HISTORY

The Mkhuze Game Reserve is an area of many moods and contrasts. The variance in habitat to be found in this small area makes it one of the most interesting and diverse of KwaZulu-Natal's game reserves. From the mountains and open savannah to be found in the western section of the reserve, to the sand forest and the riverine and fig forest near the Nsumu pan, the changing scene has something of interest to offer every visitor. The weather too can change rapidly and be unpredictable, varying as it often does in summer from blistering heat and drought to tropical storms and floods. The autumn and winter months are usually mellow and warm.

The reserve lies at the south-western edge of the coastal plain that stretches from Mozambique into South Africa. Many of the features of the reserve are unique and are not to be found in any of the other game reserves in KwaZulu-Natal. The western section of the reserve comprises the foothills of the Lebombo Mountains, which rise to an altitude of 450 metres, to the summit of the Mpila Hill in the south. The rest of the reserve is mainly flat or gently undulating country, intersected by seasonal drainage lines that carry water only after heavy rains, and low ridges. The successions of soils, from coarse sand to fine clay, were deposited from underlying geological formations and these support a wide variety of plant life - over 700 plant species in 20 major communities have been identified from the area. In turn, this has resulted in some 74 large and small mammal species, over 400 different bird species, 64 reptiles, 76 amphibians, and a vast number of invertebrate species having been recorded in the reserve.

 Ken Tinley, a young ranger newly arrived in the reserve in 1956, eloquently described the scene that he encountered while on a patrol in July of that year. "Leaving the Mlambamuti stream, we followed the fenceline for some way before coming to the open aloe-covered slopes of the Nxwala Hill. Taking an old game path up the northern slopes of the hill, we came out onto the grassland and began the ascent of Mpila Hill. From here I saw one of the finest and most beautiful views that I have ever seen. Looking northwards, one's eyes follow the chain of the Lebombo mountains until they are lost in the haze in the distance and looking to the right one sees the dark green of the riverine forest.... and here and there the shine of water from the pans along the river. Below us ... the shining waters of the Nsumu pan. Following the line of forest along the Mkuze River, one can see to the Mosi Swamp area and the blue water of the northern-end of Lake St Lucia and False Bay. To the east is the coastal range with the sea showing through here and there. In one place one could just discern a thin line of water - Lake Sibaya. I stood there for quite some time drinking in the vastness and beauty of the country around me."

Until recently the Mkhuze River flowed past the Nsumu Pan and the reserve was generally very dry, with very little surface water. This was because very little of the water from the river actually entered the reserve. The Mkhuze and Umsunduzi Rivers would periodically come down in flood together and on these rare occasions, the swollen Umsunduzi River would cause the waters of the Mkhuze River to back up and eventually overflow into the Nsumu Pan. Estimated to have been formed ten to twenty thousand years ago, the pan is believed to be the remains of an ancient estuary that was trapped behind the remains of an old coastal dune. Some years ago the Mkhuze River changed its course and it now flows directly into the pan, creating a permanent water supply. The Mkhuze River still forms the reserve's northern and eastern boundary, cutting its way past the Itshanene Mountain through the impressive Mkhuze Gorge, through the Ukhombe Hillin the Lebombo Mountains and eventually flowing into the northern reaches of Lake St Lucia. The Msunduzi River forms the southern boundary.

Aeons ago, the reserve formed part of the shallow seabed which extended from the coast, across the Makatini flats, which is part of the Mozambique coastal plain, to the Lebombo Mountains.  When viewed from the bed of the Mkhuze River, the Mantuma "hill", close to the hutted camp, rises no more than 60 metres from the riverbed and it too was once under water. It does not protrude above the plain. The valley that has developed in front of it creates the impression of the hill. The ridges of this hillside are composed of calcareous sandstones and mudstones, assigned to the Cretaceous Period, making them among the earliest marine strata along the coast of south-east Africa. Mantuma hill contains extensive outcrops of marine fossils, in the form of molluscs and ammonites. These can be seen together with some fossilised trees in the area overlooking the Nhlonhlela Pan. The view down onto the Nhlonhlela pan from the rise above it is one of the finest in the reserve and the early-morning walk through this fascinating area, which is offered to visitors staying at the camp, should not be missed.

The vegetation of the reserve too is of great interest and is rich and varied. It ranges from the dry sand forest of the KuMahlala and Msinga areas, one of only a few such compositions in Zululand, to the open grassland savannah of the Lebombo foothills. The sand forest, in particular is interesting. Despite the indifferent soil to be found in the forest, the area contains an amazing richness of plant species. As most of the existing sand forest areas in South Africa occur outside conservation areas, they are regarded as threatened vegetation types; the area in Mkhuze is therefore of particular significance. The Mkhuze Gorge contains hundreds of cycads and the tropical riparian growth lower down along the river, is characterised by huge sycamore figs and fever trees. The existence of these areas of riverine fig-forest within the reserve is especially important. The total area of this type of fig-forest to be found in KwaZulu-Natal today is 1800 hectares, of which 1400 hectares occur within the Mkhuze Game Reserve.

Shrouded as it is in myth and legend, information on the early utilisation of the reserve by man and even the origin of the name "Mkhuze" itself is unclear. Shortly after his arrival in Mkhuze to start work with the Veterinary Department in 1941, "Singie" Denyer, who was later to become Senior Ranger-in-Charge of the reserve under the Natal Parks Board, questioned local inhabitants in an effort to establish where the name had come from. Old inhabitants living to the east of the river held that it was called Mkhuze because of the warning which was called out when the river periodically came down in flood. On such occasions a wall of water would sometimes surge down the riverbed at unexpected times. Singie reported that he had himself seen this happen several times.

During dry periods, African women were forced to dig tunnels at an angle into the riverbed, up to 3 metres deep, in an effort to obtain water. The story which was told to Singie was that women were sometimes trapped in these tunnels by floodwater, when these sudden surges of water arrived. During these dry periods, Africans living upstream would call out "MKHUZE", whenever they noticed flood water coming down the riverbed. This long drawn-out warning cry was taken up and passed downstream from kraal to kraal, warning those who might be in the riverbed, collecting their meagre water supply, to get out in a hurry.

In 1958 Singie sent this information to the Director of the Natal Parks Board, in response to a request from him to try to obtain information on the origin of the name. In his letter to the Director, Singie writes that "we have personally heard this warning cry on at least three occasions and, in fact, knew that the water was on its way, two hours before it arrived in a wall from 4 to 6 feet high. This explanation therefore appears to be the correct one". A second explanation is based on the presence of a riverine creeper that grows profusely in the area, which is known as "Ukakuze". The runners of this creeper cover everything around them. Local inhabitants used to refer to an area as "Ukukze" where lands had been cleared and the debris gathered into bundles. As most of the lands were on the riverbanks, Singie thought that this might have had some bearing on the name of the river.

The earliest written records of the settlement of the region are contained in the journals of hunters visiting Zululand during the first half of the 19th century. For other clues to the utilisation of the area we have to rely on archaeological evidence recovered from various sites. One of the reserve's most important archaeological sites is on the Ndunagazi ridge, a foothill of the Lebombo mountain range, within the western area of the reserve. This ridge of grey/black sandy soil, covered in agate nodules and basalt pebbles and boulders, lies within an area of open Acacia nigrescens woodland and contains clues to the occupation of the site by early man.

The earliest tools found in Mkhuze are handaxes, dated to the Early Stone Age. In his archaeological survey of Mkhuze, conducted in 1970, David Penner reports that material from a succession of cultures was discovered scattered over Ndunagazi: he suggests that Middle Stone Age material may still be discovered here. Microlithic scrapers of agate and larger blades of basalt from the Later Stone Age, as well as NC2 and NC3 potsherds have been recorded from Ndunagazi but much else of the history of the site remains a mystery. It is possible that black pastoralists, with a knowledge of iron-working, pottery-making and animal husbandry entered this area some 500 hundred years ago.

What is recorded, is that the marine trade, as we know it and which dates from the 16th century, when Portuguese traders used the natural harbour at Delagoa Bay to extend their trade to the eastern Cape and Natal penetrated into the area. The traders emerged as the principal exporters of ivory and other game products through Delagoa Bay, whilst the main imports were copper and beads. In the 1550s the Inhaca lineage which originally controlled little more than the peninsular and islands to the south-east of Delagoa Bay had, by 1593, extended their influence through a subordinate Inkosi to just east of the Lebombo mountains in the Mkhuze area.

The discovery of isolated blue beads on Ndunagazi and the existence of what appears to be a grave demarcated by a ring of rocks, led to early speculation that the site was once used by Arab traders passing through the area in the 17th or 18th century. This theory has since been disproved following research that I did at the site. The style of some of the beads found at this particular site, now indicates that they were deposited there after the beginning of the 19th century.

By the start of the 19th century, the trade in ivory through Delagoa Bay had reached unprecedented volumes. This brought about the political expansion of local states as they sought to increase their share of the wealth generated by this export market. As the ivory that was exported increased the wealth and prestige of these states, so they sought to expand their areas of control. By 1810 the Ndwandwe had expanded their area and launched an attack on the Mtetwa, defeating their main army and capturing and killing their king. Although poised to dominate the whole region from the Pongolo to the Tugela, the Ndwandwe came into conflict with the emerging Zulu State. In a pitched battle fought on the banks of the Mhlathuze River, the Ndwandwe were defeated and their territory was forfeited to the Zulus. In addition to the Nwandwe, the KwaJobe and other communities started their migration southwards down southern Africa's low-lying east coast.  Descendants of the Amatonga, they came into contact with Zulu culture. Because of the inhospitable nature of the environment, the kwaJobe people were, by tradition, subsistence agriculturists and, because of the presence of the tsetse fly, were not able to keep cattle. They were consequently dependent for meat on the abundant herds of game that inhabited the area around the present-day Mkhuze Game Reserve.

Before Shaka consolidated the Ndwandwe and other individual states into what was to become the Zulu nation of the early 19th century, the game animals of Zululand had been relatively free from large-scale exploitation. All this was to change radically from 1810 onwards. Ivory obtained from the elephants and hippo and their hides and fat, began to attract the attention of white hunters and adventurers to the area, all of whom were anxious to trade through Delagoa Bay and through the settlement at the 'river of Natal' (Durban).

Up to 1824, local chiefs had exercised a certain degree of control over game resources in their area. Most hunting was for purely utilitarian reasons and the succession of Zulu kings imposed restrictions on the hunting of certain species, which were regarded as royal game. These included elephant, lion, leopard and otter. Elephants provided ivory for the flourishing ivory trade. The destruction of these animals was controlled, as they were a source of wealth and political power to the king. Leopard and lion provided regalia which was reserved for the exclusive use of senior political members of the Zulu nation whilst the wearing of a necklace of lion claws was reserved exclusively to royalty or to those who enjoyed their favour. The large-scale introduction of firearms into Zululand by visiting hunters, from 1850 onwards, resulted in them being allowed considerably more freedom to hunt what they pleased than in the past. The granting of these concessions usually being in exchange for a suitable array of gifts to the king and the local chiefs. Thus it was that the large-scale slaughter of game in Zululand, which was to continue for the next 70 years, started.

Around the beginning of the 19th century the KwaJobe people of the Mkhuze area established a sacred burial site for their chiefs or amakosi, in an area that was eventually to be incorporated into the  reserve. The site was known as 'Mahlala Amakosi' - the place of the Chiefs. Three Chiefs were buried here between 1802 and 1874. The KwaJobe continued to have access to this site, despite the area's proclamation as a game reserve, until 1947 when an alternative site had to be found. In recent years, agreement has been reached with the KwaJobe people that the 'Mahlala Nkosi' would be demarcated as a cultural site and that they would be permitted to have access to it. This means that all future amakosi can be buried here. On 29 June 1852, William Baldwin, a professional hunter, recorded in his diary - "crossed the UMkhuze, a beautiful river, with large trees overhanging and spreading across. Saw wolves, waterbuck and several troops of pallah". An indication of the slaughter of game taking place in Zululand at the time is recorded elsewhere in his journal where he notes that he had met up with another hunter who had a "splendid hunt" during which he had killed 150 sea cows and 91 elephants!

 

Evidence of the political turmoil that was to engulf the inhabitants of the area at the beginning of the 19th century, is to be found in the reserve, in the cave on the crest of Mpila Hill. Amongst the jagged boulders and indigenous bush just below the top of the hill there is a narrow, well-concealed entrance to the cave. Access to the cave is through a narrow, angled entrance which descends through the rocks, barely wide enough for one person to slide down through. You have to negotiate your way around the rocks, feet first, manoeuvring your way carefully through the narrow opening - a slow and tortuous business. Once inside, the cave widens out and is roomy. Its narrow entrance makes it easy to defend. The wall on the southern side of the cave contains a recess with a round opening in the rockface.

                       

 Looking out of the natural window in the Mpila cave.

This natural window affords an expansive view of the bushveld below and across to the distant Msunduzi River. The hazy northern reaches of Lake St Lucia and False Bay are to be seen in the far south. The flat surface of the rock at the opening in the cave wall has been worn smooth and become polished over the years, by the passage of innumerable bodies sliding backwards and forwards to watch from this natural vantage point.

As ranger in the reserve in the sixties, I was shown the cave by one of the old game guards. My first entry into the cave was with some trepidation, not knowing what I might find inside but, apart from numerous bats, it was uninhabited. Scratching through the dusty debris on the cave floor I discovered the empty shell of a monkey apple, the fruit of Strychnos spinosa, in the cave. This could only have been brought up a considerable distance from the bushveld below as there were no trees of that type on the hill. I also found two crude stone grinding tools, which showed signs of having been used as hammers or to grind food of various kinds. The roof of the cave was blackened by smoke, indicating that the cave had been inhabited for a fairly lengthy period. This inhospitable refuge, far from sources of fuel, water and food was presumably only used in times of unrest, when local inhabitants had to flee their homes on the lower levels to find refuge in the cave, until peace returned to the area.

Mkhuze was obviously a prime hunting area during the 19th Century. Singie Denyer showed me the remains of an "Isitogolo" pit in the Ndawana area. These pits were regularly used in Zululand for trapping animals and date to the beginning of the last century. After a pit was dug and sharpened stakes placed in the bottom of it, game drives through the area would be organised. Animals would then be driven into the pits to be impaled on the stakes.

With the British occupation of Zululand in 1879, government officials, military personnel, and tourists were quick to follow the earlier hunter-traders in the destruction of the game. So great was the slaughter that government officials came to realise that the wholesale destruction of animals could not be allowed to continue. In the years following the annexation of Zululand to the crown in 1887, Sir Melmoth Osborn, Resident Commissioner in Zululand, pressed for greater protection to be given to game and, in particular, to large species such as elephant and rhino. He was to report to the new governor Sir Charles Mitchell that "very few head of large game remain in Zululand". It was his report and interest in conservation that led to the promulgation of Zululand's first game law in the form of Zululand Proclamation No 11 of 31 March 1890. The proclamation grouped all the larger mammals to be found in Zululand under Schedule D and the governor's permission was required before anything on the schedule could be destroyed.

It was around this time that reports of the outbreak of Nagana in Zululand, which was linked to the presence of game, made their appearance. That game acted as hosts to the tsetse fly, the carrier of Nagana had already been established and as the government could not be a party to large numbers of cattle dying from the disease, the previous legislation was abolished. This was replaced by a new proclamation in 1893, placing most of the large game animals under Schedule C, allowing greater latitude in their destruction.

By 1894 a groundswell of support for the establishment of game reserves in Zululand was emerging. President Paul Kruger had already proclaimed the first game reserve in the Pongola area and an approach was made to Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, Governor of Natal for the establishment of game reserves in Zululand. On 30 April 1895, five reserves were proclaimed. One of these was in the Pongola-Mkhuze area. The reserve covered an area between the Pongola and Mkhuze Rivers, from the Lebombo Mountains to where the Pongola River took a sharp northern turn, and then across to where the Nhlonhlela stream joined the Mkhuze River. A map which had been compiled by the Zululand Lands Delimination Commission in the early 1900s showed the whole of the area which was later to form the game reserve to be land occupied by members of the Myoni and Manuguza tribes.

The reserve was only in existence for a brief period though as it was deproclaimed two years later, presumably as a result of the pioneering work that David Bruce was doing in that area on Nagana. Later on, for some years prior to its establishment as a game reserve in 1912, the resident magistrate at Ubombo, Mr Oswald Fynney had given the area his unofficial protection and he kept a watchful eye over activities there. At the time, a section of land in the Nhlonhlela area along the Usoma stream, that was later to become part of the game reserve, was leased to John Lorne Currie for the planting of rubber. This venture never got off the ground however and Currie's lease was transferred to the Amatongaland Rubber Corporation Limited on 11 October 1910.

Following Union, a Select Committee was appointed by the provincial council of Natal to inquire into the application of the game laws and one of its recommendations was that a Game Conservator should be appointed to live in Zululand. The Natal administration accepted the committee's recommendation of the need for such an appointment and the post was duly advertised. Frederick Vaughan Kirby, an erstwhile big game hunter and author of a book of his exploits, "In Haunts of Wild Game" was appointed to the post in August 1911 and became the first professional game conservation officer in Zululand. He was to be stationed at Nongoma.

Fynney's concern for the welfare of the Mkhuze area led him to make an approach to the Provincial Secretary of Natal to have the area officially proclaimed as a game reserve. His entreaties were successful and it would seem that it was on his word alone and without any official inspection of the area that the Administration agreed to the proclamation of the Mkhuze Game Reserve.

The official proclamation of the reserve appeared on 15 February 1912. The original proclamation included the Etshanenei Mountain within the boundaries of the reserve, but this section of the reserve was omitted from later proclamations. Shortly after the proclamation appeared and rather belatedly, the Provincial Secretary called for a report on the area from the recently appointed Vaughan Kirby. One of his early duties as Game Conservator of Zululand then was to undertake a two-day tour of inspection of the new reserve in March 1912. The report that he submitted to the Provincial Secretary on 10 April 1912, reads as follows:

"Report upon the Mkuze Game Reserve

I have been enabled to make a brief inspection of this Reserve, though as I had to travel on foot and the cover was exceedingly dense, I was not able (to) accomplish as much in the two days at my disposal as I would have wished. I entered the Reserve by a good footpath which ascends the Ubombo, passing Headman Madhlaka's Kraal, No II Reserve, and descending the mountain on the other, North, side about four miles west of the Empileni Hill (marked Impila on the map). The hill marked Ingwala is not known to the natives, or rather the name is not known. On this latter is a large kraal of which, I believe, one Madhlela is the headman. Here lives also Mqakazi, the native who was placed by the R.M. Ubombo to look after his "mufti reserve". This hill will be a suitable place for the game guard in charge to make his headquarters, as it is comparatively high and healthy.  

The country which the Reserve embraces extends from the Ubombo foothills and slopes gently North to the Mkuze River, with also a slight slope to the East. There are two streambeds running through it from the mountains and entering the Mkuze, the Westernmost one is called Indongana, the most Easterly one the Inhlonhlela, marked Usoma on the map. In fact it is sometimes called the Usoma where it enters the Mkuze. The soil is sandy throughout, and at this time of the year clothed with dense vegetation. The bush is very thick in places, especially along the course of the streams.

The course of the Mkuze is marked by wide dense reedbeds and in this cover the only Buffalo in the Ubombo Division is at present making its home. The bush in places along the Mkuze is almost impenetrable.

There is a fairly good drift over the Mkuze about a mile to the West of the junction of the Inhlonhlela with the Mkuze R. At the time of my visit this drift was quite impassable however, owing to the river being in part flood. I saw a fair amount of game, but the number of head seen is no criterion, in such dense bush country, of the number actually existing there. For this we have to read the spoors and even that, on account of the dense cover and long grass is no easy matter. I saw two Black Rhinoceros, several Kudu cows, eight or nine Inyala, a Bushbuck, several Reedbuck, and Warthogs, and plenty of small game. There must be a large number of Black Rhinoceros, the bush being everywhere intersected with their paths, and their dunging places being constantly seen. Inyala are numerous, and I think that there are quite a nice lot of Kudu also. 

I found Kudu spoor on the hills however, so presume that these creatures according to custom, are great wanderers, and often leave the low, fly-haunted river fringes for the cooler air of the hills. I saw plenty of Impala spoor and would make a guess at their numbers as about 30 or 40 head. They seem excessively wild as they broke away just in front of me on two or three occasions without being seen in the bush, the spoor alone revealing the nature of the animal. I saw Wildebeest spoor but no sign of Waterbuck. All the smaller game is plentiful. Crocodiles of large size haunt the river and its banks. I had hoped to have shot a few of these, but my time was too limited to allow of my attempting to get through the wide reed beds.

I have no hesitation in saying that the Administration has secured a valuable Reserve; quite apart from other game, the Inyala and Impala, which it holds, sufficiently warrant the proclamation of this piece of country.

 F. Vaughan Kirby

 Game Conservator"

Following the proclamation of the reserve, not much appears to have happened at Mkhuze for the next twelve years at least and there is no detailed record of the staffing of the reserve from 1912 to 1925. We do know however that, in 1922, 4 African game guards were stationed there and these men were under Vaughan Kirby's control. As he was living at Nongoma at the time his contact with his guards was very infrequent and they were very much left to their own devices.

As early as 1919 the first of many calls for the deproclamation and abolishment of the game reserve was made: similar calls were to be repeated at regular intervals for the next 50 years!

In December 1914, scarcely two and a half years after Mkhuze was proclaimed, the first report of illegal settlement in the reserve was forwarded to the Chief Native Commissioner in Pietermaritzburg by the Provincial Secretary, Natal. In his minute dated 3 December 1914, he stated that Vaughan Kirby had reported that one of Madhlaka's people, Mbumbuluza Mafuleka had put up huts inside the Mkhuze Game Reserve, without permission from the magistrate. Vaughan Kirby instructed Mafuleka to move out at once and also saw Madhlaka's Induna Mzimana, who promised to see that Mbumbuluza stayed out of the reserve.

Following conclusive evidence that there was a great deal of poaching on the part of people living in Mkhuze, 10 years after the establishment of the game reserve, the Provincial Secretary addressed an urgent memorandum to the Chief Native Affairs Commissioner, Pietermaritzburg on 18 January 1922. He forwarded a report that he had received from the Game Conservator, which detailed the number of residents, dogs and guns in each of the 7 homesteads that were to be found in the reserve at the time. These were recorded as "being between the Nhlonhlela and the Msinga bush". In the meantime, Vaughan Kirby had issued instructions to his game guards on how to deal with the situation. His instructions were that if the guards found that poaching had been carried out in the vicinity of any of the kraals and the people of those kraals failed to report the matter to the guards or assist in the matter, they were to be expelled immediately.

In February of that year, the Magistrate, Oswald Fynney, wrote to the Chief Native Commissioner: Natal regarding his instruction to remove "unauthorised squatters" from the game reserve. He pointed out that "the kraals affected by your present instructions are but a few of the many kraals which will be affected, immediately your instructions are carried out. All these kraals are those of families who have occupied their present localities from time immemorial, so far as we are concerned".

He went on to say that " this very puny situation is likely to become magnified to one of tribal oppression, in the minds of the tribes concerned, unless some real reason for the proposed step can be advanced".  He also asked the question - "As the Zululand Lands Delimitation Commission had demarcated the land as tribal land, could any members of either tribe be regarded as unauthorised squatters?" He suggested that the tribesmen living in the reserve be left in peace, unless they were convicted under the game laws, when they would face eviction. This procedure was subsequently approved.

It is somewhat ironical that Oswald Fynney, the very man who had so vigorously championed the establishment of the reserve 10 years previously, should now support the concept of tribal occupation of land within the reserve. His attitude in this matter is, however, no more than a demonstration of his personal integrity and an example of the impartial application of his responsibility as Magistrate of the area, to ensure that justice was applied in this case, irrespective of any personal preferences that he might have had.

On 27 May 1925 the Provincial Secretary, Natal again wrote to the Chief Native Commissioner, Natal. He stated that Game Guard Dikidiki Nsele, who was in charge of the Mkhuze Game Reserve at the time, had reported to Vaughan Kirby that 4 local residents had transferred their allegiance to Chief Madhlaka. As a result of this action they had entered the reserve and established their kraals there. In Vaughan Kirby's words "two other residents have already been convicted and they still live in the reserve, and now four others have come in, two of whom have, from time to time, given much trouble, both being active poachers. In justice to my men, and me, I beg that the matter be put right and that the natives in question be ordered to leave the reserve at once. It will be obvious that it is in everyone's interest to ensure that the game in the reserve is not disturbed or scattered to an unnecessary extent, having regard to the popular view prevailing in Zululand at present that the game is the direct cause of the spread of Nagana". He concluded by saying "if at all possible, I would be obliged if you will take the necessary steps for the removal of those who have recently built their kraals in the reserve".   

The Chief Native Commissioner's reply sent to the Provincial Secretary on 19 August 1925 was very specific.  "Having regard for the fact that natives were living in the reserve long before it was proclaimed a game reserve, I think it decidedly unfair that they should be ordered to remove their kraals, provided they do not interfere with the game. If the Game Conservator is so positive that July and Zifo are such active poachers, as stated by him, to my mind the obvious remedy would be for the guards to exercise more vigilance and catch them. Madhlaka complained to me that Diacidic (Dikidiki) had ordered some natives to leave the reserve at once and that, when he was told that they were of Chief Madhlaka's tribe, Diacidic had informed them that the reserve belonged to "Mfohloza" (Vaughan Kirby) and that Madhlaka was of no account".

Dikidiki responded to this accusation and vigorously came to his own defence with the following statement made to Vaughan Kirby on 6 November 1925: "We have hardly ever rested but have moved about in the reserve at all hours. I do not think it right for the government to allow them (the residents) here after telling them to go...... I have not enough men to make two patrols. The result is that all three of us have to work together and while we are at Egujini, where so much trouble is caused, Madhlaka's natives are poaching in the Ganenkomo bush, while others from the Nsumu and Msunduze come in and shoot in the bush where we have all the traps. We cannot guard both ends of the reserve at one time as we should do.... Mbumbuluza Mafuleka was convicted and he is still living in the reserve, although he was told to clear out. We want to know why these things are done and if we get an order we are supposed to obey it and we do not understand why these people are allowed to disobey the government. I ask that you will represent this to the government because Sir, we are being made fools of".

His protestations were of no avail and the Chief Native Commissioner: Natal sent the Provincial Secretary a laconic reply. "Reading Diacidic's statement one would imagine him to be most conscientious in the performance of his duties. He has evidently reformed since he was caught some three years ago disposing of wildebeest meat to the natives in return for "busulu" (palm wine) and for which offence he was dealt with departmentally by the Game Conservator".

Three years later, in 1928, the vexed question of the occupation of land within the reserve had still not been resolved. The Chief Native Commissioner had expressed his willingness to abide by the earlier understanding reached which stipulated the removal of new settlers in the reserve who had been convicted under the game laws. He did, however, champion the cause of the other residents who had been living in the reserve for some years. In November 1928 he wrote to the Provincial Secretary stating that "...it does not seem to me that sufficient cause for their removal has been made out. It must be remembered that the natives on Crown Lands in Zululand (including the game reserves) have been resident on these lands for generations. In fact, they are, in most cases, their ancestral homes and it would be a most serious and drastic step to have them removed. I regret therefore that on the information given, I would not feel justified in accepting the suggestion for their removal as far as those natives who have not offended are concerned". Here to, the goodwill of the Chief Native Commissioner is very much in evidence in this demonstration of looking after the interests of his wards and in speaking out on behalf of the local inhabitants, who had not been consulted when the reserve was established.

The question of control on the influx of local inhabitants, their crops, and their cattle into the game reserve is a subject which has featured in the history of the reserve for the last 80 years and which has not yet been finalised!  

Following Vaughan Kirby's retirement in 1929, Roden Symons was appointed Game Conservator in Zululand. A big-game hunter like Vaughan Krby, Symons had acted as Game Conservator, Zululand in 1914, while Kirby was on leave and on Vaughan Kirby's retirement, he was offered the post. He was also stationed at Nongoma, from where he made regular visits to Umfolozi, Hluhluwe and Mkhuze. During 1929 a Ranger Ledward worked in the reserve with Roden Symons and he was succeeded by a man by the name of Liversage, who was appointed to Mkhuze in 1931. Liversage remained in the reserve for 18 months, during which period he camped on the north bank of the Mkhuze River. Symons stayed in the post for only a year, and resigned in 1930 to accompany the De Schaunensee Kalahari Expedition as ornithologist and "white hunter".  Symons,  in turn, was replaced by Captain H.B Potter who, unlike his two predecessors, stationed himself in the Hluhluwe Game Reserve rather than at Nongoma. Potter was a regular visitor to Mkhuze, following Liversage's departure. He spent a few days in the reserve each month and found it a fascinating place. In 1933 there were 6 game guards stationed in Mkhuze and although the corporal of the guards had a bicycle to get around on, this small force had to look after the whole reserve. Potter was perhaps a bit optimistic when he recorded in his annual report for 1933 that no poaching "by Europeans has taken place here and the few natives who attempted to defy the law have been caught and suitably dealt with". He estimated at the time that there were 1000 impala in the reserve and at least 750 inyala. A rather remarkable statement that he made at the time was that, as he had seen only one black rhino calf, he thought the 11 or 12 rhino in the reserve were animals that had been driven out of the Hluhluwe Game Reserve and that they were mostly old animals past the age of breeding.

During his visits from 1930 to 1939, Potter stayed at a camp that he had established in an area near the survey beacon that was later to be erected in the central section of the reserve. It was here  that the first visitor accommodation was built. In his annual report for 1934, Captain Potter records that an unfurnished cottage was now available that could accommodate 12 visitors and that Their Excellencies, the Governor General and Lady Clarendon and staff visited the reserve in August 1934. In 1939 he moved his camp and built a rondavel at Mantuma which has been the administrative centre for the reserve ever since.

The Zululand Game Reserves and Parks Board was established in 1939. This followed a report of an investigating committee that was submitted in 1937, when the formation of a statutory body, somewhat on the lines of the National Parks Board of Trustees, was recommended. This board controlled the management of Mkhuze and the other Zululand game reserves. In 1941 control of Mkhuze passed to the Department of Veterinary Services while they were busy with the anti-Nagana campaign in the reserve.

Up to 1941, access to the reserve was from Hluhluwe Station and Lower Mkhuze, through the Nxwala Crown Lands, past the site of the original staff quarters near Denyer's beacon, to Mantuma and all visitors to the reserve had to use this route. The only other track in existence at the time was to the Masheza Nagana camp. Following Singie Denyer's appointment to the reserve, he opened up other management tracks in the reserve, specifically for the purpose of delivering of water to the staff and bait cattle kept in the western and southern areas of the reserve.

  Around 1947 he cleared the track from Mtshopi, over Mission Hill, as a more direct route out of the reserve to Mkhuze Station - the route that the present entrance road follows. The Mission Hill track, as it was known, became totally impassable in wet weather and was cleared for Singie's personal use.  The Veterinary Department allowed no public access to the reserve via it and it was only after 1953 that it became the official entrance route to the reserve. Around 1949/1950, Singie also constructed two drifts on the Mkhuze River. The first, known as Shenton's Drift was at Zwaniban Point but was not a success, because of sand seepage. The second, below Mantuma and known as Denyer's Drift, is still in use today.

 

Leonard "Singie" Denyer

 

By the time the reserve was handed back to the Natal Provincial Administration in 1953, the Zululand Game Reserves and Parks Board had ceased to exist. The Natal Parks Game and Fish Preservation Board had come into existence and had replaced the old Board six years previously. Established in 1947, the new Board was to control all aspects of wildlife conservation in Natal for more than 50 years until it too was to amalgamate with the KwaZulu Department of Nature Conservation to form the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service in 1998.