Staff Reporter
State-owned forestry company SAFCOL is losing nearly R20 million a year to timber theft by “highly organised and heavily armed syndicates” operating in its Mpumalanga plantations.
Illegal mining in its nature reserves is also damaging sensitive areas and forcing the closure of some hiking trails, Parliament said on Friday.
Briefing the Portfolio Committee on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation during an oversight visit to SAFCOL’s plantations in Sabie, the company said it was “losing almost R20 million a year through illegal harvesting by organised syndicates.”
SAFCOL Acting Chief Executive Officer Sibalo Dlamini told MPs the criminals “enter the plantations at night to harvest timber,” forcing the company to “install digital security systems for early detections”.
The plantations span thousands of hectares across Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
SAFCOL, a 100% state-owned company, manages large plantation assets and related facilities in the region, including an R&D centre outside Sabie and ecotourism operations that include hiking trails, picnic and waterfall sites, and accommodation.
The company also blamed the growth of small sawmillers for contributing to illegal harvesting and urged government to tighten regulation of the sector.
MPs were also told that illegal mining inside SAFCOL’s nature reserves was “threatening eco-tourism” and had led SAFCOL to close some hiking trails because of “security risks posed by the heavily armed illegal miners”.
South Africa has stepped up policing against illegal mining through initiatives such as Operation Vala Umgodi, a crackdown launched in December 2023 to combat the scourge.
Committee members agreed with SAFCOL’s proposal to have timber theft declared a priority crime and to tighten legislation to prevent mining licences being issued on land designated for forestry, the committee said.
It also commended SAFCOL’s unqualified audit and the rollout of mechanised harvesting, and welcomed its incubation and enterprise development work.
Those initiatives had empowered over 108 SMMEs in the past three years, according to the committee.
SAFCOL has reported consecutive unqualified audit opinions in recent years and has positioned enterprise and supplier development as central to its efforts to grow community-linked suppliers and improve governance.
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