Piet Grobler Memorial Plaque (at Piet Grobler Dam Viewpoint)

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If you drive north on the S39 from Timbavati picnic site, you find a small elevated viewing platform overlooking the Piet Grobler Dam. It is the largest concrete dam in Kruger National Park and was built in 1988 and named after Minister Piet Grobler in recognition of his work towards the proclamation of the Kruger National Park.

The plague at the dam reads:
"This structure has been erected in honour of and to commemorate ex-minister of Lands PCW Grobler. Piet Grobler was a great grand nephew of President Paul Kruger and founder of the South African National Park system. He piloted the National Parks Bill through parliament on 31 May 1926 and in doing so established the Kruger National Park.”

In 1926, the new Minister of Lands, Piet Grobler, championed legislation in parliament for National Park status for the reserves. It was at this stage that the name 'Kruger National Park' was suggested. On 31 May 1926 the National Parks Act was promulgated and the Kruger National Park became its first protected area, including the old Sabie and Shingwedzi Game Reserves as well as the land between the two. Its founders, the South African government, believed that the park “must form one continuous whole” and be large enough “particularly for animals who require plenty of room to move about”.
Piet Grobler told Parliament on 31 May 1926 when introducing the second reading of the bill: “It seems a dispensation of Providence that we have been given the locality to establish a national park in the interests of the preservation of our fauna”. Grobler’s idea was to establish the territorial integrity of the Kruger Park against the interests of the mining and farming lobbies that wanted free reign in the park, which had existed since 1898 as the Sabi Game Reserve. Grobler said: “In the first place we must fix the boundaries by legislation”.

[mposthumus]