Friends of Free Wildlife go forward

The open meeting for Friends of Free Wildlife was well attended on 16 January at the Rivonia Recreation Centre.

The ‘Mawkss’ that management of Friends of Free Wildlife (previously called Friends of FreeMe, until they were forced to change their name and logo) have affectionately called themselves, hosted the open meeting to address concerns of the greater public. Margi Brocklehurst, an active partner of the Mawkss said, “We had this meeting to address the public but also to discuss the way forward for FreeMe Gauteng and Friends of Free Wildlife.”

FreeMe Gauteng temporarily shut down on 10 November due to a host of issues including mismanagement.

Read the previous article here, Mismanagement causes FreeMe shut-down.

The major concern was the current cases still being treated at FreeMe Gauteng. Brocklehurst explained that animal cases outside of FreeMe Gauteng are being treated by the large network of qualified volunteers which are a part of Friends of Free Wildlife. She added that there are a number of meercats and tortoises that are still at FreeMe Gauteng and that should have been rehabilitated months before and released.

A number of legal routes were discussed with the public including taking the current board members (Margo Bansda, Shathi Govender and Ros Gerber) to court. Here, they will argue that the many members of FreeMe Gauteng that are not in support of the current Board have been disenfranchised and their right to vote for Board members has been removed by the Board itself. Simply put, in 2012 the memorandum of FreeMe Gauteng was changed. The change took power away from the members who were previously able to appoint Board members. It changed to the extent that now, Board members are the only ones allowed to vote in Board members making the use of ordinary members (who are volunteers that have worked at FreeMe Gauteng for more than six months) null and void.

Ultimately, Brocklehurst and other members emphasised that they would like the resignations of the current Board of FreeMe Gauteng. “The Friends of Free Wildlife want to re-open FreeMe Gauteng and run it as a world-class wildlife rehabilitation centre ethically, being a fully compliant non-profit company, maintaining good relationships with the NSPCA and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development,” said Brocklehurst.

Members of the public who are interested in the future ethical running of FreeMe Gauteng are urged to appeal to organisations such as the NSPCA (that have the legal power) to ensure that FreeMe once again becomes a world-class wildlife rehabilitation centre.

FreeMe Gauteng will apparently have a closed general meeting on 28 January at 5pm. Friends of Free Wildlife encourage supporters to attend the public gathering they intend to have outside of FreeMe Gauteng.

Details: Friends of Free Wildlife, www.friendsoffreewildlife.co.za

Related article:

UPDATE: Friends of FreeMe meet