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Media Release: Outgoing board of SANParks thanks stakeholders
Date: 1st April 2015
The outgoing Board of South African National Parks (SANParks), which was appointed for the three year period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2015, has now ended its term.
According to the Chairperson of the outgoing Board, Mr Kuseni Dlamini, “The outgoing Board of SANParks is pleased to have had the opportunity to be of service to our shareholder, the Government of the Republic of South Africa, and to the people of South Africa in general in carrying out our duties as the custodians of our national parks during our term of office. Our national parks are a key component of the heritage of our country and we are honoured to have been able to play a role in safeguarding these assets for current and future generations. We would like to thank all those stakeholders that we have worked with during the term of this Board, and to wish the incoming Board strength and success in taking SANParks forward. I would like to extend my most sincere appreciation to the outgoing Board members, who have shown a whole-hearted and passionate commitment to their responsibility of looking after what is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading conservation agencies and an important contributor to our country’s National Development Plan”.
The Board of SANParks has, during its tenure faced a number of challenges, particularly in respect of the escalation in rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park. A suite of measures have been put in place, as part of Government’s multi-pronged strategy, to combat and contain rhino poaching. There has been a significant increase in the resources deployed with an increase in the numbers of rangers trained and deployed in the fight against rhino poaching. Working relationships with the SAPS and the SANDF have been strengthened, and relationships with both the private sector and communities have been enhanced in order to ensure that all sectors of society are united in this endeavour. There has also been an increasing emphasis placed on the testing and use of advanced technology, and as recently as 19th March of this year the Chairperson of the Board commissioned a new helicopter donated by the Howard G Buffet Foundation, and also launched a project on the evaluation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) for use in the fight against rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park.
In October 2014 the Strategic Rhino Translocation Programme was launched with the movement of a certain number of rhino out of poaching hotspots in the Kruger National Park to areas of better security and suitable habitat both within the Park and to other parks and reserves. As part of this programme a rhino sales programme was initiated whereby a tender was issued for the sale of white rhino to private land owners who fulfil a number of requirements, including habitat and security assessments. The tender process is at the adjudication stage of awarding the successful bidders. We were also able to purchase additional properties to the value of R32 million towards the creation of rhino strongholds that will allow the total rhino population size of South Africa to continue to grow. Dlamini stated that “While we cannot claim to have won the war against rhino poaching during our term, we have gone a long way towards developing and putting in place the interventions needed to contain this threat to our natural heritage. The Board has always recognised that the threat to our rhino is not only a threat to the conservation of this iconic species, but is also a threat to the national and local economy given the role the rhino plays as one of the Big 5 in driving eco-tourism in the country”
In recognition of the fact that the persistence of the national park system into the future depends in large measure on the extent to which communities can benefit, and are seen to benefit, through their association with national parks, SANParks has placed strong emphasis on building the element of socio-economic beneficiation into the work of SANParks. As one element among others, during the term of this Board, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) implemented by SANParks has grown from strength to strength. SANParks now implements eight EPWP programmes that form part of the Department of Environmental Affairs Natural Resource Management Programme (NRMP) and the Environmental Protection and Infrastructure Programme (EPIP). EPWP projects to the value of R489 million have been implemented in the 2014/15 financial year. To date 11 000 people were appointed in the course of the last year, resulting in 5 100 Full Time Equivalents (FTE’s) of employment. Mr Dlamini stated that “The Board of SANParks has remained committed to maximising employment and other economic opportunities associated with national parks. On any given working day over 12 000 people get up and go to work in one or other capacity in a national park. The days of national parks being seen as anti-development are a thing of the past. Our national parks play a key role in driving local economies, particularly in the rural areas where there are not many other economic opportunities”
Building constituencies has remained a key focus of SANParks with a range of programmes in place to ensure that children in particular are exposed to national parks and are given an opportunity to understand the importance of the maintenance and development of a national park system. Over 170 000 people (largely learners) are exposed to environmental education programmes in our parks on an annual basis.
Tourism to national parks is a key component of the national tourism economy, and is also a key component of the conservation funding strategy for SANParks. Under the guidance of the 2022 Responsible Tourism Strategy approved by the Board in 2012, SANParks has continued to enhance the tourism experience in all National Parks. The key components of the strategy focus on the following:
Enhancing Customer Service
Responsibly diversifying the tourism product offering and experience.
Enhancing visitor management and Interpretation.
Strengthening tourism research.
Ensuring ongoing maintenance of tourism infrastructure.
Ensuring real tourism benefits for surrounding communities.
And lastly reducing costs and growing revenue from tourism operations.
“We as a Board are proud of the sound growth in Tourism and this is evidenced in the continued growth in both occupancies and revenue. This financial year 2014/15 has seen year to date tourism revenue grow by 11.8% which will result in full year revenues breaching the R1bn mark for the first time. Occupancies continue to outstrip the industry averages with current year to date national occupancies as at end February 2015 being 72.6%. Guests to Parks have grown by 7.5% with 5 119 581 visitors to Parks. Our Public Private Partnership (PPP) relationships still continue to deliver and set a world benchmark in PPP implementation for protected areas” said Dlamini.
A key highlight of the past year was the re-opening of the Skukuza Airport in June 2014, which now enables our guests to the Kruger National Park to fly directly into the Park on scheduled flights. This will allow us to further grow tourism and to market this iconic Park. A further highlight was the implementation of branded restaurant PPP’s in national parks. This has been a tremendous success with customer service feedback rates improving from an average of 60% to an average of 80% during the 2014/15 period.
The Board received unqualified audit opinions for the years ending March 2013 and March 2014. The audit for the year ending March 2015 is in progress and an unqualified opinion is expected as well.
Dlamini concluded “In handing over to the new Board of SANParks, the outgoing Board recognises that SANParks is in the forever business. The work of maintaining and developing the system of national parks is never done. We need to state, however, that the outgoing Board has worked tirelessly to address issues of both performance and governance to the best of our ability in order to ensure that we hand over an institution that is in a good state to continue to deliver on its mandate to the people of South Africa”.
Issued by:
SANParks Corporate Communications
Enquiries:
Paul Daphne
Head of Communications
SANParks
Tel: 012 426 5072 or Cell: 082 806 5409
Email:
paul.daphne@sanparks.org
