Stakeholder Meeting - White River, Saturday 27 May, Ngwenyama Lodge 09h00

[Flutterby]

KNP MANAGEMENT PLAN REVIEW SESSIONS AT MAJOR CITIES SCHEDULED

Dear Valued stakeholders
The meeting scheduled to take place in Durban on Wednesday, 17 May 2017 is postponed until further notice, due to a request by stakeholders to allow them sufficient time to make arrangements to attend the meeting.
To broaden the consultation process for the Management Plan review, the Kruger National Park (KNP) will hold structured meetings at major cities in the country from 24 to 27 May 2017 and would like to invite interested members of the public to come and give input. This follows up on the public sessions which took place in the local communities bordering the Park from 18 April to 4 May 2017. It is a requirement of the National Environment Management: Protected Areas Act No 57 of 2003 that all protected areas must have management plans and review them every 10 years.
“SANParks vision which reads “a sustainable National Park system connecting society” is the cornerstone of the Park Management Plan and serves as a guideline for our engagements with stakeholders. Our first Park Management Plan was approved in 2008 and the consultation process was a bit limited as it concentrated on mainly the two provinces in which the Park is found. This time we would like to include as many people as possible hence we will be visiting more provinces; because it is important that their input gets included on the plan which will serve as a policy in the next 10 years”, said the KNP Managing Executive, Glenn Phillips.
Five Stakeholder meetings at four major cities will take place at the venues as follows:
Date Venue Forum/Area Time
24 May 2017 Strand Tower Hotel Cape Town 09:00
25 May 2017 Manhattan Hotel Pretoria 09:00
26 May 2017 Aviator Hotel Kempton Park 08:00
27 May 2017 Ingwenyama Lodge White River 09:00
Those who may not be able to attend the sessions but would like to register as a stakeholder and give input, can still do so through the SANParks website on https://www.sanparks.org/conservation/park_man/ or enquire from Dudu Letswele on telephone: 013 735 4102 between Monday and Friday during office hours. Stakeholders can also send an email to andre.spies@sanparks.org
Ends
Issued by
South African National Parks: Communications & Marketing Department – Kruger National Park.
Media enquiries:
William Mabasa, Acting Head of Communications - SANParks. Contact: Tel: 013 735 4363/012 426 5170, cell: 082 807 3919 or email: william.mabasa@sanparks.org

[Richprins]

Good morning - I am available to attend the Ngwenya meeting on 27 May - please provide further info and what is required of me. Do I need to register on the link provided, to be able to participate?

Thank you!
Linda

[RogerFraser]

[Richprins]

Back from meeting. It was well-attended, with maybe 70 present. 5 AW members, if Woodlin was there?

Dup will give a summary later, but it was basically a session of taking suggestions from attendees in writing, not all that much question time?

Mr Phillips was a bit sarcastic about how few of the public had attended the previous 3 meetings, asking where all those who "knew how to run a National Park" were. I reminded him those were on working days, with 6 days' notice, to which he said people should then take leave from work.

[H. erectus]

people should then take leave from work.

I will save this comment somewhere, rather callous for a comment!!!

[Mel]

Interesting display of Mr Phillips attitude towards public involvement

[ubhejane]

Dup will give a summary later, but it was basically a session of taking suggestions from attendees in writing, not all that much question time?

For clarity since I will be going on Saturday:
Are you saying that we need to prepare and take written suggestions? When you say not all that much question time, how much was that? if our questions are not answered because of lack of time, are we going to be able to put them in writing?

[Lisbeth]

Better to be prepared and take the written questions along in multiple copies.

[Bushcraft]

Interesting display of Mr Phillips attitude towards public involvement

Yes, certainly not the attitude one would expect

[Richprins]

Yes, one can take questions/suggestions and hand them over...or send them in electronically. But hard copies probably better. Dup and I handed some AW stuff to some other stakeholders, which is also a good idea!

One can ask questions at any time, but Mr Phillips gives a Power Point about the woes of Kruger lasting about 1.5 hours, depending. This is available somewhere, but in my opinion might as well be given out in writing beforehand to save time.

They are very organised and accommodating, I must say, with little chat sessions to make flipcharts raising queries. There is no time to address those though...there were about 70!

They will compile the management Plan in the rest of the year, with feedback to stakeholders. Then another round of meetings in February. Then submission to the minister for signoff before 2019 General elections.

They are wildly more polite and at least appear to be less arrogant than in the past, which is a sign that we are being taken seriously. They were also definitely expecting confrontation.