WHITE RIVER – Well-known Cybele Forest Lodge & Health Spa will close down at midday on Sunday November 17.
This well-known South African brand has been marketed locally and internationally for the past 34 years. The closure is the result of a land claim which was initiated by the Manzimhlophe Community, nearly five years ago.
The claim was verified and found to be valid by the Land Claims Commission, in terms of current legislation. The South African Restitution of Land Rights Act was introduced to address the dispossession of land from historically disadvantaged persons. The government then purchased the lodge and 120 hectares of forestry land on behalf of the community.
“What is particularly distressing,” says Mr Rupert Jeffries, director of Cybele, “is that the government has completely failed in its objectives towards the well-being of the Manzimhlophe Community in that we requested meetings, engagements and commitments from them in respect of a suitable and efficient hand-over of the hotel, and a further purchase of all hotel fittings and moveable assets prior to the finalisation of the sale agreement between us and the Government almost a year ago. None of this effort yielded any result.”
“The government undertook sporadic efforts to find a hospitality or strategic partner to run the lodge in conjunction with the community. However, these attempts failed and this will now result in 45 staff members and their dependents, being deprived of an income. Most of these people have worked at the lodge for more than 20 years.
“With no hotel management help in sight, or funding for the community, the reality is that they will simply inherit a completely empty lodge that will irrevocably become derelict in a very short space of time. The timber plantations, an integral feature of the character of the lodge, will not continue to stand for much longer.”
