Dear Dr Mabunda
I would like to bring something slightly concerning about your marketing and PR efforts to your attention. But before I do that, let me give you a brief overview of who I am and what I do.
I would like to bring something slightly concerning about your marketing and PR efforts to your attention. But before I do that, let me give you a brief overview of who I am and what I do.
I am passionate about South Africa , in particular, the
rich natural heritage that we have been blessed with and inherited and I
support those organisations that endeavour to protect this heritage. I spend as
much time as I can outdoors and in nature and frequent as many South African
Nature Conservancies and Parks as I can. In fact, I have bookings at three of
your incredible parks to look forward to next year.
To make a living, I am a dedicated brand strategist. I
strive to ensure that the brands I work with are positioned optimally for
maximum impact and effect in the market and I work to help them maintain a
good, responsible and positive image in the minds of consumers, ultimately to
help guarantee their business success.
Let me return to the purpose of this mail. I follow SAN
Parks on Facebook. SAN Parks has an impressive 51 000 followers - a number to
be proud of in the social media environment in South Africa . That means over 51
000 people have chosen to follow what you say and over 51 000 are recipients of
the communication that you extend to them on a daily basis.
I have noted with interest the increasing number of posts on
your Facebook Page about rhino poaching and what has essentially become and
been termed the War on Rhino Poaching.
Fair enough, the levels of rhino poaching are alarming, enough I believe, to
have imposed a decline on our rhino population and if you add up the numbers,
to threaten extinction to the species in less than a decade.
We all have the right to be extremely concerned and frankly,
angry. Our heritage is being threatened and very little is being done
internationally to help tackle the demand for rhino horn. Parks and conservancies
are the ones who appear to be bearing the brunt of this epidemic with little
reassurance that it is going to slow down any time soon.
In the last three to four years, the South African public has finally been made more aware of what is
happening and on what scale poaching is taking place. This is fair and arguably
good. We are joint custodians of our natural heritage and have the right to
know what is threatening it. It is also necessary to gather the support of
South Africans to increase the pressure on Government and international
organisations to do something about this on the levels that count i.e. to encourage
proper attempts to challenge and curb the demand by a largely Eastern market -
a demand fuelled by the leaders of the very countries in question.
On the ground at home, we are dealing with an equally
complex situation. Our country and our neighbouring countries are plagued by
poverty and I am certain that because of this, it isn't particular hard to
convince a few economically- and socially desperate people to plunder a natural
heritage that is the least of their concerns. A heritage that they realistically
reap no rewards from and one that they have had not had the means to appreciate
and fully understand the greater meaning of.
This is what SAN Parks is dealing with. And lately, this is
what SAN Parks is becoming increasingly public about - the confrontation
between its field rangers or hired task forces and the impoverished
"runners" paid marginally to break through a fence, find a rhino and
kill it.
Via your daily updates, not only are your followers and the
broader South African public being made aware of your attempts to curb poaching
on the ground, we are also privy to the increasing number of human deaths that
are a result of this anti-poaching effort. In fact, your organisation or brand,
seems to be advertising the fact.
In a post I was exposed to on the 20th November, along with
thousands of other South Africans, SAN Parks acts almost proud that another
poacher was fatally wounded (exclamation mark, exclamation mark). It seems fair
to assume that SAN Parks is quite proud of the death of a human being who has
done wrong and by deduction, one can't help but think that SAN Parks thus
advocates the death sentence.
From using Facebook for simple daily updates on the state of
the natural nation to it becoming a platform to convey what one can argue is an
underlying, yet powerful political ideology is quite a bold leap for a brand
with a very defined purpose. This move is one that I am not certain is within
the best interests of your brand or grounded in what I believe your brand
purpose to be.
Instead of rallying a nation of natural heritage custodians
and conservators, you seem to be rallying a crowd for war - a crowd just as
pleased as you by the death of another human being that has done wrong; a crowd
ignorant to the complexities that fuel this poaching epidemic; a crowd that is
starting to outwardly condone death, war, murder as the final resolution.
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| A representative sample of SANParks follower comments |
This is what concerns me most. A brief look at global
history might suggest that this attitude or approach only ends badly. Perhaps
it is time to take a brand leadership stance and influence your followers from
the position of a renowned and admired nature conservator and not an organisation
proud and out to kill.
Regards,
Jayne Holness
Couldnt agree more. I am not sure when we became a nation that celebrated death, where we cheer at the death of the impoverished. This cant be the way to truly combat rhino poaching. As you say there are bigger, global reasons as to why this is happening and these issues should be addressed otherwise the poaching is not going to stop and more people will die.
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