SANParks TODAY

Acting CEO Engages Staff On The State of SANParks and Vision 2040

By Katlego Morulane

On 10 May 2022, SANParks ACEO, Mr Dumisani Dlamini engaged SANParks staff in a hybrid session hosted at the SANParks Head Office, Groenkloof National Park in Pretoria. SANParks Chief Operating Officer, Ms Lize McCourt and Head of Human Capital, Ms Makgomo Umlaw also steered the session. Mr Dlamini presented the Quarter 4 and overall performance of the organisation highlighting that SANParks achieved 87% of its targets, 3% was partially achieved and 10% have not been achieved.

3% 10% 87% On target

Work in progress Off target

Mr Dlamini presented the performance of the organisation per outcome goal, illustrated in the table below:

OUTCOME GOALS

Outcome goal 1: Sustainable biodiversity and cultural heritage across land and sea delivers benefits for the people of SA and the world, now and in the future % On target % Work in progress % Off target % No milestone

87,5% (14/16) 0% (0/16) 12,5% (2/16) 0% (0/16)

Outcome goal 2: Improved diverse-responsible tourism 60% (3/5) 20% (1/5) 20% (1/5) 0% (0/5)

Outcome goal 3: Sustainable socio-economic development programme that ensures delivery of benefits to the land claimants, historically disadvantaged communities and the people of SA 100% (14/14) 0% (0/14) 0% (0/14) 0% (0/14)

Outcome goal 4: Sustainable and transformed organisation through revenue, people, systems and business processes 82% (18/22) 9% (2/22) 9% (2/22) 0% (0 /22)

OVERALL PERFORMANCE 86% (49/57) 5% (3/57) 9% (5/57) 0% (0/57)

Mr Dlamini explained that revenue raised through tourism increased to R1 191 billion, which was 11,2% above target of R1 071 billion and also explained that the income to cost ratio improved compared to the previous year (currently at 0.96:1).

Vision 2040 and the new strategic direction

The ACEO enlightened staff about Vision 2040, a SANParks board and leading project of establishing a long-term vision and strategic direction for SANParks, anchored around four main themes: • Conservation – Our long-term view is to establish a strong portfolio of both terrestrial and marine protected areas while also ensuring our national parks are climate resilient and responsive. We also have an ambition to see thriving rhino populations in our national parks in partnership with communities. • Tourism – Our long-term goal is to significantly enhance our value proposition, improve our product offerings and position our national Continued on Page 6...

On a Crusade To Create Universal Accessibility at Cambedoo’s Valley of Desolation

By Chris Patton

Chantelle Marais is a tour operator, entrepreneur and passionate lover of the Karoo and her home town of Graaff-Reinet. For several years she has proudly been entering the Valley of Desolation into the Lilizela Tourism Awards, which gives national recognition to locations to raise their profile, both in South Africa and around the world. Even though the town and the Valley were acknowledged at provincial level several times, they were never recognised at national level as the criteria for the national award included universal accessibility (UA), and the physical terrain at the Valley View Point is not accessible to all visitors.

Chantelle raised the issue with her father, the late Buks Marais, who was likewise a Karoophile and an active member of Granaat, an association of concerned locals who actively work to support the park, even before Camdeboo’s establishment when it was still known as the Karoo Nature Reserve and managed by the Eastern Cape Provincial authorities.

Granaat as a body approached SANParks and indicated they would like to raise funds and source expertise to help create greater UA at the Valley. The Camdeboo Park Manager, Mzwandile Mjadu, put them into contact with the SANParks Honorary Rangers and SANParks Universal Access Champion, Chris Patton, who was invited to the park to advise on what issues needed to be addressed to create a viable level of universal access. SANParks’ Dr Hugo Bezuidenhout and Cornie Jonker were also co-opted to provide their respective areas of expertise to the projects and their various costings.

For some years now there has been a viewing deck, called the Montego Deck, that allows views to the east towards the town of Graaff-Reinet itself, but there was no accessibility at the nearby ablution block, no accessible route from the parking area to the Valley lookout, and no accessible platform at the Valley lookout. These three initiatives were identified as the priorities to make the Valley more accessible, and so began a lengthy process of engagement to provide all the above targets.

In 2019 the first phase on the campaign towards universal access was achieved through the upgrade of the existing public ablutions block at a sponsored cost of R95 000, handed over to the park on 6 March 2020.

Then of course the journey was stalled a little by the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic. But four years after the accessibility crusade started in 2018 enabled by the significant sponsorship of

Camdeboo’s Valley of Desolation universally accessible

R130 000 by the Mountain Zebra and Magaliesberg regions of the SANParks Honorary Rangers, a 60m² viewing platform with an unrestricted view and shade covering was presented by Granaat to SANParks and thus the public at large.

The most challenging phase of the Valley of Desolation UA Project is still to come with phase 3: The walkway…

During phase 3 of the project, a 240-metre universal access pathway from the parking area to the new viewing platform will be constructed. The estimated cost of this phase of the project is about a R1 million as the walkway will have to be elevated to ensure less disturbance to the environment, and recycled plastic in the form of polywood will be used as a surface boardwalk. The walkway will be 1 metre wide with periodic passing widened nodes and benches every 50 metres. The walkway slope will try to limit the gradient to 1 in 20, to be within local and international accessibility standards. A funding request was sent out in 2021, but Granaat is working on additional local technical and financial support. To further this aim, Chris Patton (SANParks Visitor Services Content Manager) and Andre Riley (Acting Regional Manager for Frontier Parks) were invited to travel through and attend the handover of the viewing platform to address a gathering of interested locals and media in an effort to inject a greater understanding and awareness of Universal Access, its requirements, and the economic and social benefit in achieving inclusivity.

So one woman’s initiative to see her local tourism attraction recognised has snowballed and gathered a momentum that should see Camdeboo becoming an accessible tourism hotspot, and for that we salute her.

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parks to appropriately respond to the needs of the 21st century customer. • Socio-economic transformation – Our goal is to position our national parks as catalysts for local economic development and to fully integrate communities and land claimants into the business of SANParks. • A world class sustainable, responsive and prosperous organisation – Under this theme our immediate priority is to initiate an organisational re-engineering programme in the 2022/23 financial year to ensure that all our systems, processes, human resources and technology are supportive and aligned to Vision 2040. A questions and answers session was allowed for staff to engage the leadership. Answering a question about why some people have the same job title and responsibility and do the same job, but are at different Paterson levels, Ms Umlaw explained that Paterson Grading moves from lower to upper, meaning one can be doing the same job and will be paid within a certain band. That did not mean that staff will be paid the same salary, Umlaw explained.

SANParks COO, Ms McCourt committed to improve visibility of EXCO members, adding that the virtual imbizos have assisted EXCO members to be more visible as S&T budgets have been cut.

SANParks Supports Communities Around Garden Route

By Reynold Thakhuli

In the interest of supporting sustainable livelihoods in communities adjacent to national parks, SANParks handed over of food, gardening and angling equipment to the Wilderness Heights, Klienkrantz, Smutsville and Rheenendal communities in the vicinity of the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park in the Western Cape.

In his address, SANParks Managing Executive for Parks, Mr Property Mokoena, said this initiative is part of SANParks’ Community Social Legacy Programme aimed at addressing a broad spectrum of community social needs. “We are proud to be handing over this much needed equipment as part of our Food Security and Angler Support programmes, which will both make a difference in the lives of the people living near the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park.”

He said, “SANParks has adopted these programmes to safeguard against poverty by encouraging food gardens at home and also to provide skills for sustainable fishing while recognising indigenous knowledge in the area of food security and sustainable angling.”

Mokoena said in collaboration with the Garden Route Biosphere reserve a total of 30 pensioners from the Smutsville community will benefit from the angling project where their indigenous knowledge will be utilised for future generations. “The ideology behind the project is to ensure that

Garden Route community members with their certificates

there is an intergenerational skills transfer with youth learning from the pensioners, while also addressing the issue of illegal fishing. The programme also aims to assist pensioners with fishing permits as they depend on marine resources as food.”

“The Community Social Legacy Projects are funded from the 1% tourism income on all accommodation bookings. Over the last four years this is estimated to have been between R6 million to R7 million per annum.”

“To date SANParks has provided schools with administration buildings, science and computer laboratories, mobile libraries, playgrounds, kitchen facilities, ablutions and school desks to mention a few. During 2020 to 2021, as part of the SANParks COVID-19 Relief Programme, the Social Legacy Fund invested its proceeds to provide much needed support in the form of food hampers to 8 500 needy families, 80 water tanks, hand sanitisers and surgical masks to communities neighbouring our national parks,” concluded Mokoena.

The Food Security and Angler support launch was attended by the local community members, young and old together with the Executive Mayor of Knysna, Mr Levael Davis. The programme was divided into two parts whereby the first part was awarding certificates and handing over of tools, and the second part was the unveiling of signage where the community members fish.