African Wildlife & Environment Issue 74

ECO-HERO

A man for all seasons ENOS MABUZA

When I first mooted the Eco-Hero series in 2010, my initial thoughts were very much on the contributions that have been made by South African men and women to environmental conservation. While the series has not changed this prime focus, every article has brought the realisation that each and every Eco-Hero had a visionary approach to life itself, and that the men and women who carried the flag for the environment were first and foremost ‘heroes’ in the society in which they lived their lives.

Lynn Hurry

A nd so, it was with Dr Enos John Nganani Mabuza – a classic example of a man who applied himself selflessly over a distinguished career in the Lowveld of South Africa for over 30 years. Born on 6 June 1938 into a family working on the Sheba Gold Mine in Barberton, Dr Mabuza died from the effects of cancer on 13 December 1997. Rosemary Smuts (pers comm.), Dr Mabuza’s personal assistant during the kaNgwane days, recalls that Dr Mabuza had spent much of his early days living with his hymn-singing grandmother in what he recalled as an idyllic rural life. It is most probable that in this early time the first seeds of his life-long walk with the natural environment began. A lifetime of service In his relatively short working life, he packed in an activity load that might have strained other leaders of lesser mental strength. The title of a 2011 Rhodes University doctoral thesis prepared by Ashley Sarimana reflects a ‘life well lived’ by Dr Mabuza over those 30 years. That the thesis Trials and Triumphs in Public Office. The Life and Work of E. J. N. Mabuza is a 487-page document speaks volumes for the workload carried by Dr Mabuza. Reflecting a lifetime of service to the world of business, Dr Mabuza was a director of several South African companies covering a diverse range of economic activities. To each board he gave his undivided attention. But, equally as important (if not more so), he served on (sometimes as Chairman), or gave advice

to, numerous charitable trusts including those focussed on the needs of communities of people. These included The Independent Development Trust; the Management Committee of the University of Witwatersrand; the St. Stithians School Board; the Promat Colleges' Board of Trustees; the New Era Schools Trust; the Donaldson Trust; the National Parks Board; the South African Economic Advisory Board; 1820 Foundation; the Wilderness Leadership School; the Group for Environmental Monitoring; Trees for South Africa; the South African Nature Foundation; and the National Botanical Society. In 2005 – some 10 years after his death – a group of prominent leaders held a commemorative symposium in Nelspruit to pay tribute to Dr Mabuza. That the chairman of the Symposium committee was Dr Matthews Phosa, and that dignitaries such as the (then) Vice-State President Jacob Zuma and the Vice Chancellor of UNISA Dr Barney Pityana were amongst the speakers, reflected the high regard in which Dr Mabuza was held by his peers. Dr Mabuza was an unusual political leader (especially in the early days of the new democratic South Africa) in that he kept environmental conservation firmly in the mix of development activities throughout his political career. He had an intuitive understanding of conservation issues and, amongst his many conservation achievements, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Songimvelo and Mthethomusha game reserves in areas that made up the former KaNgwane ‘state’.

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