ZULULAND tour guide and birding specialist, Themba Mthembu received this years’ ‘KZN’s Best Tourist Guide’ award at the Lilizela tourism awards ceremony.
Judging by the rave reviews of his guiding skills on Tripadvisor, he is a most worthy recipient.
Themba, who hails from Nibela on the boundary of iSimangaliso Wetland Park, is a beneficiary of iSimangaliso’s Rural Enterprise Programme, which provides training and financial support for entrepreneurs in various businesses relating to tourism, conservation and development in the areas surrounding the Park.
He started his business ‘Zulubirding and Ecotours’ in 2008, one of the few black owned tourism businesses in the area.
Themba joined the iSimangaliso Rural Enterprise Programme in July 2012 where he received training from Raizcorp on financial management, business strategy, marketing and sales.
He is mainly based in St Lucia where he offers guided tours, hiking, cultural and game drives in and around the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
A long list of sightings
An accredited guide with a NQF level 4 certificate, and renowned for his birding knowledge, Themba has birded in every province in South Africa and his current personal bird list is some 700 birds, which means he has made it onto the ‘Trevor Hardaker’ list.
Speaking with extreme passion about his introduction to and personal growth in the field of conservation and specifically birding, Themba says, ‘As a young boy, I hunted birds and small animals as is our custom. Sometimes I encountered conservationists from Phinda Private Game Reserve bringing bird watching guests to the Nibela Peninsula.
‘In time, we got talking about what they were doing and my interest was sparked.
‘I was invited to join students at Phinda’s training centre where I was inspired.
‘I subsequently applied for training through the Department of Environmental Affairs and was one of two trainees selected from my area.
‘I have since spent several years studying and working in the field of nature conservation.’
Themba became aware of the challenges of working in a geographical area where there was little understanding of conservation and he realised a deep need to educate neighbouring communities, especially in some of the country’s most important birding areas where species were on the verge of extinction.
One of Themba’s recent international clients, Dr Mike May, who is ranked 13th globally in bird watching (with 1083 species recorded this year), declared Themba a ‘first rate guide who took us to see a huge number of ‘targets’ during his visit to iSimangaliso with colleagues’.
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