Social Objectives

Maliba Mountain Lodge would like to follow two distinct paths for developing and promoting social involvement:
(i) The first is the promotion of good social interaction between tourists and members of the local community. A context for encouraging respectful interaction and exchange between locals and visitors needs to be developed and the ways in which such a platform for interchange will be created is set out in the first section below.
(ii) The second way we propose to promote social involvement is through investment in the improvement of education, health and infrastructure of the surrounding communities. A number of proposals are put forward in the second section below.

Promotion of local community development projects

Experience in similar contexts in Lesotho shows that tourists visiting an area are often interested in the needs of local people and are frequently motivated to contribute towards the development of the area they are visiting. Mountainside Retreat Consortium, who would like to set up a Community Development Trust, would encourage such interest. This Trust to which tourists and various organizations can contribute money to be channeled into local development and environmental protection initiatives put forward by our body corporate and the community. We also anticipate that a percentage of the Park entrance fees and a share of other concessions would go directly into the Trust.
Some of the local projects we have in mind & need to be explored for the area are: 1. Market gardens 2. Winery 3.Olive farm 4.Cherry orchard 5.Handicraft centre 6.Environmental centre etc

PARK MANAGEMENT

Mountainside Retreat Consortium has been in discussions with MTEC to eventually take over responsibility of all the facilities within Tséhlanyane National Park.  These discussions are still ongoing.  High on our agenda for park management is a restocking program to increase the numbers of endemic mammal species within this high altitude region of the Maluti-Drankenburg mountain complex.