SANParks free access to parks extended to weekends

Soon locals may visit the Kruger National Park (KNP) for free again. SANParks recently announced the dates of the 14th annual National Parks Week.

Between September 8 and 15 no day visitors’ fee will be applicable.

SANParks celebrates the week with partners Total South Africa and FNB, and announced the week has been extended to include weekends this year, heeding the request from South Africans who do not have time to visit national parks during the week. This focus week is a world-wide campaign which gives people free access to national parks.

South Africans then have the opportunity to visit one of the 21 national parks for free, and for locals the KNP would be a natural choice.

Since the country also celebrates 25 years of democracy as a nation, SANParks sees it as a special opportunity and aims to increase the number of citizens who are granted free access to national parks during this time.

Since they started the programme in 2006, some 438 361 South Africans have been afforded the opportunity to enter national parks. “It is important for South Africans to visit and know the importance of national parks,” said SANParks’ chief executive officer, Fundisile Mketeni. “They act as spaces to practice sustainable conservation, that preserve and celebrate our culture and heritage, and we now see national parks playing the critical role of empowering communities living adjacent to parks through job creation.”

He said they also continue to explore ways of creating business opportunities, particularly for small business owners.

Mketeni highlighted the growing need for national parks to be relevant, particularly to young people and communities living adjacent to parks. “Through our socio-economic transformation programmes and our expanded public works programme, we work closely with communities living adjacent to national parks, with the aim of strengthening our relationships with them. In order to be more inclusive we can tackle issues of wildlife crime with their help, afford them more access to parks for cultural use, inform young people about the different career options that parks have to offer and create job opportunities.

“SANParks hopes to strengthen and enable those communities to reap the benefits of the national parks.”