Misnamed Kruger Park sparks AfriForum legal campaign
AfriForum has reported the matter to Google and insists on rectification.
AfriForum is taking urgent legal steps to correct misleading information on Google Maps which refers to the Kruger National Park (KNP) as Skukuza National Park.
According to Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s Environmental Affairs adviser, this incorrect listing appears as one of the top search results for ‘Skukuza’ and is linked to the official SANParks site information. SANParks is the management authority of the KNP. This is creating a global false impression that KNP’s name has been changed.
In terms of Section 20 of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act 57 of 2003, only the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment (DFFE), has the legal authority to assign or change the name of a national park. Schedule 2 of the Act lists all national parks by their official names, including the KNP. No notice of this so-called new name was published in the Government Gazette. This means the KNP remains the only legal and official name of the park.
“AfriForum will report this error to Google Maps and request the incorrect entry to be corrected. We are strongly opposed to the reckless and politically motivated attempt to change the name of the KNP. Changing the name would erase part of our shared history, damage one of South Africa’s most valuable tourism brands and undermine the rule of law. The process for any name change is clearly set out in legislation and no such process has been followed,” De Vaal said.
He also said AfriForum would request the minister of the DFFE, Dion George, to issue a public statement confirming no new name for the KNP had been approved. George’s statement would also address the legal implications of such a proposal.
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Members of the public who wish to support the campaign to retain the KNP’s name are invited to sign AfriForum’s petition at www.keepkruger.co.za.
The KNP’s spokesperson, Rey Thlakuli, said: “We have been made aware of this error through a media enquiry. Change of a national park’s name is a long and legal process and SANParks has not changed the KNP’s name on Google Maps or anywhere else. We also do not have such a name in our official records. SANParks is not aware of any official process under way to consider name changes at KNP,” he said.
