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Looking after our mountains

19 March 2019 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling

Dr Mutana and Prof Mukwada — Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region. Prof Geofrey Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. Pictured here are Dr Sarudzai Mutana with Prof Mukwada.

Not only is the Qwaqwa Campus situated in a beautiful region – its researchers also contribute to keeping the area pristine. Recent research by Prof Geofrey Mukwada and his PhD student, Dr Sarudzai Mutana, focused on indicators monitoring sustainable tourism development in the Drakensberg region.

Dr Mukwada is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography on the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus.

Our majestic mountains are fragile

Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region – either as adventure seekers exploring the many trails, or just relaxing and reconnecting with nature. Prof Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. “Mountains are fragile but attractive environments which continue to attract tourists,” he said. “Tourism is one of the major business sectors in the Drakensberg region, with promising growth opportunities and proving to be an anchor of green economy in the future – if practiced correctly.” Unfortunately, the issue of monitoring sustainable tourism has not been widely researched in African mountains.

According to international standards

“We specifically looked at the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), which is an international best-practice framework to help destinations monitor and ensure that tourism is developed in a responsible manner,” Prof Mukwada explained. “South Africa’s Manual for Responsible Tourism was designed according to some of the recommendations of the GSTC. But we found that, while the tourism and hospitality operators in the Drakensberg region appreciates the need to monitor and ensure sustainable tourism in the area, there is limited use of indicators as a tool for monitoring.”

Forward together

There are competing demands between land-use and development practices and alternatives in the region – unless the focus shifts to sustainable practices, the short-term gains could be followed by dire consequences. “We suggest an integrated monitoring of tourism development, with a pro-poor focus that involves more local community leaders. Going forward, we would like to see the industry adopt the indicators proposed in our study.”

News Archive

‘Leadership is formed through ethical behaviour’

2012-08-20

Mr Edward Kieswetter
20 August 2012

“Being ethical is not about what we can do, it is about what we ought to do.” This is according to Mr Edward Kieswetter, Group Executive of Alexander Forbes Limited. During his lecture to MBA students in the Business School, Mr Kieswetter allowed the audience to engage in a discussion about ethics and leadership in the business world. Mr Kieswetter is also Vice-Chairperson of the UFS Council.

Part of the lecture was discussing South Africa as a country that was not born in ethics. Mr Kieswetter commented that although context was is very important in making decisions, South African people tended to, for example, and “feed on corruption, instead of acting actively against it”. Questions about South Africa’s ethical foundation were raised. Mr Kieswetter explained that one of the greatest challenges with the South Africans was to help them understand that a person always had a choice. “If you have to compromise on your own values, you are not doing anybody justice.”

Ethics can promote common and social goals if they are not determined by what people feel and strive to reach beyond the barriers that religious beliefs put up. He shared of his life’s most valuable lessons learned about people in leadership positions. “A great leader has incredible self-awareness and displays a huge amount of humility.” He said that in life it was not about being perfect; it was rather about being authentic, even in challenging times where the outcome might affect the current situation negatively. “My greatest successes came from lessons I learned in making mistakes and growing from them.

“If you have nothing to die for, then what is there to live for?” Mr Kieswetter said when asked whether he would compromise his financial position if he did not agree with the ethics of the company he worked for. “By constantly complaining instead of progressing, we are giving up our power to change, and that is a scary thing for South Africa as a developing country.”

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