New Gates for Kruger National Park

[Peter Betts]

New Gate for Kruger (Shangoni)Tue Sep 06, 2011

I was privaledged to go to Shangoni for 3 week ends while Don English was Section Ranger there in the late 1980's. This is the only section of the 22 in Kruger without any tourist roads and the No entry sign can be seen at the end of the Redrocks road 'No Entry Shangoni Ranger 35 kms' The thin middlemannetjie road follows the Shingwedzi River to the point where it enters the Park and that is where the rangers house is. A few kilometres north is a farm gate called the Shangoni gate and is used to go into the tribal land to catch poachers etc.

Forget the crowded south the greedy senior management are going to do the same to the 'quiet' north as well. Shangoni gate is to become a huge main gate to serve the people of the Giyani area and to provide employment and to give easier acess to the Park and the Pafuri and Giryondo Gates. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE Punda and Phalaborwa gates????? and soon a highway road will lead all the way to Shingwedzi Camp. These non conservationists running the Park now have obviously NOT done their research as the reason there are no tourist roads in the far NW is because of the huge and wild breeding herds of ellies found there but what do they know and more so what do they care...until the whole kruger is bricked and paved like the CBD of JHB

[Lisbeth]

Must have been a lot of research to come up with this decision. Peter where did this info come from?

I saw it in the Kruger Park Newspaper I bought at Croc Bridge shop 2 weeks ago with Govt/sorry Kruger spokesman Mabasa mouthing forth all the 'benefits'...wonder which tenderpreneur will benefit from this one as there is NO CONSERVATION Benefit whatsoever and rather provide employment outside the Park in these impoverished areas with self help schemes like COLLECTIVE veggie growing but the profits and money to be made wont be the same I guess

I saw it in the Kruger Park Newspaper I bought at Croc Bridge shop 2 weeks ago with Govt/sorry Kruger spokesman Mabasa mouthing forth all the 'benefits'...wonder which tenderpreneur will benefit from this one as there is NO CONSERVATION Benefit whatsoever and rather provide employment outside the Park in these impoverished areas with self help schemes like COLLECTIVE veggie growing but the profits and money to be made wont be the same I guess

I saw it in the Kruger Park Newspaper I bought at Croc Bridge shop 2 weeks ago with Govt/sorry Kruger spokesman Mabasa mouthing forth all the 'benefits'...wonder which tenderpreneur will benefit from this one as there is NO CONSERVATION Benefit whatsoever and rather provide employment outside the Park in these impoverished areas with self help schemes like COLLECTIVE veggie growing but the profits and money to be made wont be the same I guess

Its like a BAD Dream all this rape of our heritage...At least I gave my adult boys the time of their lives out there in Shangoni Section when they were 3 and 6 yrs old riding in the back of Don's Bakkie and swimming in the Game Drinking Troughs ..the place is so remote the summer sounds of Monotonous Larks resonates in your ears...Soon the Graders and snarers will move in and the area will be GONE forever...I cant blame my boys for looking at USA to maybe go and live in now that their favorite Kruger is going down the drain fast...just remember those good times boys around the fire at night with no fences in the area where Mafunyane once roamed...just dont forget to turn the lights off when you leave

Job opportunities?

The plans are for Malelane, Skukuza, Orpen, Phalaborwa and two more.

Maybe one of the two more at Shangoni.

Sacrilege this is where Gus Adendorff saw great game concentrations in the sixties.

Buffer Zone fence to keep Muyexe Villagers safe from Kruger Park wild animals
14 Jul 2011

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform invites members of the media to the Buffer zone fence handing over event to be held at Muyexe village in Limpopo on the 15 July 2011.

Muyexe villagers are the beneficiaries of the modern state of the art 17 km Buffer zone fence erected at a cost of R9 million to protect the community and their livestock from the animals coming for the Kruger National Park.

Over the years, the lives of the community members were in constant threat from dangerous wild animals breaking the Kruger Park fence, killing livestock and damaging crops in their fields. The community members were losing cattles every week to the predators escaping from the Kruger National Park. Consequently depriving the poor community’ only source of livelihoods.

Muyexe village, bordering the Kruger Park on the Punda Maria Gate, and now the proposed Shangoni Gate, was selected as the first pilot site for the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) and launched by President Jacob Zuma in 2009. The fence is in direct response to the community’s outcry to save their livestock from wild animals.

During the first consultations to determine the community’ developmental needs after the village was declared CRDP pilot site, a community member asked the department to provide him with a gun in his desperate need to protect the livestock saying that would be the biggest community development in the village.

The event will be held as per the following details:
Date: 15 July 2011
Venue: Muyexe MPCC
Time: 10h00

For further information regarding the event kindly contact the following officials:
Mr Avhashoni Magada
Tel: 015 297 3539
Cell: 082 4657848

Mr Motlatsi Lebea
Tel: 015 284 6300
Cell: 073 32 39 333

Enquiries:
Eddie Mohoebi
Tel: 012 312 9648
Cell: 082 550 1445

Issued by: Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
14 Jul 2011

[Lisbeth]

The opening of this gate seems to be part of some "smaller" development plans in the area:

http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/commo ... 2046_1.doc


NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
(For written reply)

QUESTION NO. 1564
INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 16 NW1732E
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 10 June 2011

Mr N J J van R Koornhof (Cope) to ask the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:
Whether SA National Parks (SANParks) intends building any new bush camps in the Kruger National Park; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) how many, (b) where and (c) when?


Mr N J J van R Koornhof (Cope)
SECRETARY TO PARLIAMENT
HANSARD
PAPERS OFFICE
PRESS



1564. THE MINISTER OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS ANSWERS:

(a) SANParks has no intention to build new Bush camps (like Biyamiti, Sirheni, Bateleur, Roodewal etc). The current Bush camps have yet to attract full capacity and there is no need to build more. SANParks plans to build more low impact rustic Tsendze style tented camps in the future.

(b) Some concepts which are currently in the early planning stage as mentioned above include the following:
• A rustic camp site on the upper Shingwedzi River where the envisaged Shangoni Gate and corridor is being planned.
• A rustic camp (tented possibly) in the Pafuri and/or Punda Maria area.
• A rustic camp (tented) on the northern bank of the Letaba River.
These, however are all at a pre-feasibility phase and the final decision in terms of design and location have not been made.

(c) A proposed tourism development plan will be compiled in conjunction with the Conservation Development Framework (CDF), thus informing and guiding strategic, compatible development responses. It is envisaged that these processes will provide draft outputs by end 2012 and will include appropriate consultations

They sure want to fill up the park and I who thought that they would put the new developments at the border and develop the guided tours.

A short time ago Sanparks has denied that they were going to build that kind of camps as they did not pay off......another contradiction or are they changing their plans every 3 months, just like that!!

Lis they are not changing their plans, just teying to keep them as quiet as they can for as long as they can, so as not to attract opposition to their ideas.

Once again they denied something that they then let seep out little by little.

"No other camps are going to be built" My foot!!

To be honest I think I support this type of development - depending on full disclosure. The northern areas of the park could benefit from this type of infrastructure and ultimately lead to more people learning to appreciate what the KNP is all about.

I think the debate over which paper it was in has run its course!!!


Ja, I think Aikona intimated a while back the main opposition was to large-scale developments, specifically in the South of Kruger.

However, the Shangoni Gate intrudes into a "hyper-pristine" area, as I understand?

Anyway, definitely no response forthcoming from Mr Mabasa and Wanda re. the issue, despite repeated private efforts from my side.

Will be in media soon, hopefully! :?

It is the politics of Sanparks that I condemn. Never any transparancy, we always get to know about things by chance!

I am also against any kind of further development in the park for more than one reason.

The latest rehash of 2007 decision....amazing how quickly "answers" can appear!


http://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za:8080/dspace ... 6/FOUR.pdf

When was this document issued?

This is the document posted by RP, Lisbeth

Title:

An analysis of the livelihoods of the Muyexe community located along the Kruger National Park in Limpopo Province.



Authors:

Makamu, Mkhacani

Keywords:

biological diversity conservation
sustainable development
conservation of natural resources
Limpopo (South Africa)

Date published:

9-Jun-2008

Date conferred:

May 2005

Thank you Toko! I thought I had seen it before, but I am afraid, that I never read it uptil now (the part posted my RP).

Ja!

By "rehashed" I mean it's the best explanation given "over there" so far....a 6 year old document!

[Richprins]

According to an interview with Doctor Mabunda in yesterday's Lowvelder newspaper, SanParks propose opening a new entrance gate near Luphisi, about halfway between the current Numbi and Malelane gates. This is envisioned to give greater access to the local communities, in terms of Kruger's restructuring plan and PDZ.



The approximate location of Luphisi is indicated in red, with the Airport encircled in blue.







The extremely high population density of the neighbouring communities can be seen, although they are dozens of kilometres away.
The adjoining area of Kruger is the last and largest "untouched" wilderness zone left in the South of Kruger, home to two of its only three wilderness trails, and devoid of tourist roads.

[Sprocky]

This is not on!!!

There are enough access gates to the park already! I would love to know what the ultimate plan is. RIP KNP.

[Richprins]

Historically this area has aways had the most well-established White Rhino population in Kruger, in fact that is where reintroduction began in the 60's!

Mthethomushwa Provincial Game Reserve lies South of Luphisi, but is seperated from Kruger by a railway line.

[Flutterby]

And so all the plans are finally coming out of the woodwork!!

[Richprins]

Between the new Luphisi and Shangoni gates day visitor access will presumably increase by 500-600 visitors per day during peak times.

The cost of simply linking Luphisi to the existing tourist road network using a tar road would be prohibitive and insane, so I assume there will just be dirt roads around the gate, with a hotel already "tendered" for either just inside or just outside the Park.

Still a massive capital expenditure!

[Penga Ndlovu]

Me think that, although it is far away, it is the entrance for the hotel.



If one looks at the map carefully one can see why this has been chosen.
- Smack dab in the middle between the airport and the hotel
-The terrain is extremely suitable for viewing places and sights nobody of us has ever seen.
- Density of animals, because of the absence of human activity, is very high there.

Yup.
The south of Kruger is officially declared a zoo now.

[Richprins]

Ironically, in these wilderness zones, animals are extremely skittish and not accustomed to traffic, so sightings will be poor.

But agreed, Penga!

The actual location is a bit further south, I think, the next valley down!