Kruger National Park: Be Careful of what We may Lose

[Richprins]

MORE CONSEQUENCES:


1. Accommodation prices in Kruger have already been rising some way above the inflation rate over the last few years, understandably, as it is essentially a "captive market". This is why hotel companies are extremely interested. Once camps are privatised, costs increase significantly further, as per the restaurant precedent.

2. The die-hard local Kruger fans, not day visitors, simply cannot afford this, and visit adjacent lodges, B&B's and self-catering cottage industries. While this may at first boost the local economy, it wanes as the daily cost of using enforced OSV's and park and ride at the gates becomes prohibitive versus the new grouped pre-arranged osv experience...alien to most.

3. Meanwhile, Park and Ride facilities cost money, currently budgeted for from SP coffers, as with Skuks hotel. Added costs such as security mount up.

4. One single car is stolen while "resting" at a Park and Ride lot, leading to a very quick collapse of that idea. Osv's are left stranded almost overnight, as KNP regulars move their holiday destinations elsewhere. Once again the local economy suffers, and Kruger increasingly becomes a joke in social and international media. This happens very quickly, as worldwide media is relentless.

[H. erectus]

3. Meanwhile, Park and Ride facilities cost money, currently budgeted for from SP coffers, as with Skuks hotel. Added costs such as security mount up.

The Malelane Radison venture, park and ride facility also a Sanparks responsibility!!!!

[H. erectus]

How safe will your car be in these enclaves?? Insurance issues were discussed!!

[Richprins]

MORE:

Labour Relations should Kruger become more and more privatised.



This is a very tricky business in SA, and there is a huge difference between how Government instititions/ Parastatals handle finances and shortfalls and labour disputes, and how private companies do it.

1. A parastatal like Kruger (Which it effectively is) has led quite an isolated existence regarding labour issues. Granted, it had the longest strike by workers in SA's history, but in a relatively non-violent and compartmentalised way, without services being affected drastically.

2. SANParks and Kruger receive Government bailouts whenever disaster strikes...floods and rhino poaching being prime examples. This money is above and beyond insurance claims (Nobody knows where flood insurance money has gone yet) and is administered as needs be in the general pot that is SP finances.

3. In my experience, Kruger tourism staff, who form the vast majority of its payroll, have become accustomed to quite a harmonious and restful existence, free from "excessive" supervision, and secure in the knowledge that disciplinary action is laborious and may lead to a slap on the wrist or transferance to another section or camp, which is the norm in the greater scheme of things in .gov.za.

4. Private companies do not work like this at all. They are abundantly experienced at dealing with staff irregularities, via labour consultants, and will make SP's current moneymaking look like child's play. After all, that is what they are all about. Salaries will depend on profit and performance.

5. The SP brand and corporate identity..basically everyone from Gate Guard to CEO working wearing the same Kudu badge, may fall away after privatisation..a culture shock, and breakup in the "family" so to speak.

SO A SCENARIO:


A camp employee is suspended, tried and speedily fired for misconduct. In shock, the employee calls on the assistance of SACCAWU, SA's biggest hospitality union, to which many if not most Kruger employees belong. (Hence the strike mentioned previously). In true SA tradition, the union calls on its members to "down tools" in all camps in Kruger, if not SANParks. That is how we roll in SA, especially if a private company is deemed "racist" or "unfair" by the union...remember now it is not.gov in charge anymore...it is an open target. Government and Unions are interlinked in our political setup.

Tourists are left in shock, and leave. Government can't do anything, which infuriates the strikers, who damage property etc. This is not as far-fetched as one may think.

The private companies leave the camps...too bad so sad.

[H. erectus]

The private companies leave the camps...too bad so sad.

More so a very good reason for Sanparks and .gov to adopt reasoning
for so called "crisis control"!!!~!!! supposedly all their actions in good faith!!

Nah nah nah,...

[Richprins]

Helloo, anyone can post "crystal ball" ideas here too...

[nan]

I have to buy a cristal ball

[H. erectus]

Please do not waste your bucks on crystal balls,......
it's happening right before your eyes,,.............
Wake up!!!!

[Richprins]

National Parks are protected by an act of Parliament:


South African National Parks (SANParks) was established in terms of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 (Act No 57 of 2003). In terms of this act, the primary mandate of SANParks is to oversee the conservation of South Africa’s biodiversity, landscapes and associated heritage assets through a system of national parks.

The core areas that provide a fundamental basis of SANParks’ mandate are conservation management through the national parks system, constituency building and people-focused ecotourism management, and corporate governance and sound business and operational management.

The organisation plays a significant role in the promotion of South Africa’s nature-based tourism or ecotourism business, targeted at both international and domestic tourism markets. The ecotourism pillar of the business architecture provides for the organisation’s self-generated revenues from commercial operations that are necessary to supplement government funding of conservation management.

The work of SANParks also focuses on building strategic partnerships at international, national and local levels, in support of the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of South Africa. It also has to ensure that South Africans participate and get involved in biodiversity initiatives, and that all its operations have a synergistic existence with neighbouring communities for their educational and socioeconomic benefit.

SANParks is currently responsible for the management of 22 national parks. The strategic direction of SANParks in the next five years will focus on the following key objectives: enhancing the organisational reputation by bringing trust, confidence and transparency to stakeholders and positioning the organisation as an ultimate brand to be associated with, growing community support and providing access and benefit-sharing, promoting tourism that works to protect the environment and benefit local cultures and communities, and to improve the state of the conservation estate through informed park planning, development and effective biodiversity monitoring.


https://www.environment.gov.za/statutorybodies/sanparks

[Richprins]

WE NEED to resurrect an old but stunningly simple idea in SA — privatisation. Privatisation, involving a genuine transfer of public assets to the general population, could create a real sense of participation and inclusion in the economy.

It would, instantaneously, propel working-class black South Africans into the middle class, short-circuiting a process that otherwise would undoubtedly occur but take the better part of a century. Apart from granting leaseholders of government-built homes full freehold title to their properties, as the Free Market Foundation has long advocated, nothing has the potential to empower blacks more than privatisation.

Privatisation is not an untested idea. SA’s self-proclaimed peers — Brazil, Russia, India and China — have been pursuing many and varied paths toward private ownership, control and influence over state-owned enterprises and government-provided services for at least 25 years. The path to privatisation has been difficult, but no one seriously doubts the extraordinary positive effect market competition has had on economic growth, poverty and inequality in these and other countries.

Privatisation is an attractive option for SA, if only because the government’s ability to perform even simple functions is compromised. Cadre deployment, public service unionisation, political and regulatory capture, and outright corruption have led to unbridled chaos, not only in the state-owned enterprises usually thought to be candidates for privatisation (Eskom, Transnet, Telkom, the South African Post Office, the South African Broadcasting Corporation etc), but also in public services municipal and other spheres of government provide.


http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/2014/09 ... sformation




There are lots of things one can google about Privatisation of State assets in SA....this one is quite recent, and refers to the bigger state enterprises.

There is a big difference regarding Kruger, though.

My two earlier points were separate regarding the privatisation of camps/tourism in Kruger, and the selling of restcamps.

This may seem to be a splitting of hairs, but not so.


Privatisation of state assets is a sensitive point, understandably, and subject to great public and Parliamentary scrutiny...not to mention legal precedents. Kruger is a state asset, make no mistake.

As with any Parastatal, SERVICES can be outsourced, tendered, released to consultants for execution in an advisory or managing capacity etc.

Fortunately, Kruger is a National Park, so the actual "Property" cannot be sold to a private entity without a further amendment to the NEMPA...or at the very least a huge rigmarole in Parliament. So Kruger is "safe" in that regard. There is no way significantly sized portions of a National Park can be simply deproclaimed, so we and future generations are assured, at least!

Or are we?