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Another fire underlines problems at Kruger National Park

Dear Johannesburg

Another shop has caught fire in the Kruger National Park. The fire at Berg-en-Dal camp follows five days after a fire that destroyed the shop at Letaba. The cause of the fires is undetermined.

These fires comes in light of the Kruger Park CEO, Fundisile Mketeni dodging giving answers about what’s going on with the Park’s accommodation crisis. At a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Environment, Forestry and Fisheries on 2 September, I asked Mketeni to provide details of how much of the Kruger Park’s guest accommodation was not usable, and what the reasons were for it not to be available. Although I asked for those answers within 24 hours, Mketeni was protected by ANC Committee Chairperson Fikile Xasa, who allowed 7 days for written answers to these questions to be delivered. That deadline has come and gone, and if Mketeni has delivered his report, it has not been passed on to MPs.

I wrote to Xasa on 1 September to request a special meeting of the Portfolio Committee to drill down into these and other questions about the state of Kruger National Park. To date I have not had a reply.

This strengthens the perception that there are major problems at the Park, which are being deliberately hidden by Park management and the ANC. This perception is fed by large numbers of complaints by members of the public who have visited the park and by the extreme hostility with which SANParks has treated criticism on social media. Meanwhile a trade union has made allegations of wide-scale corruption and nepotism in Park management.

The Kruger Park’s financial losses due to the lockdown have had to be covered by a grant from the government, that is why it is vital that accommodation is available so as to generate income. The unavailability in accommodation has already interfered with the resumption of domestic tourism. The fires will make this worse.

Minister Barbara Creecy and SANParks owe us an explanation.

Regards

James Lorimer MP
DA Shadow Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries

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The Socio-Political Crucible of Soweto

You cannot understand Johannesburg without understanding Soweto (an acronym for South Western Townships). Originally established as a “labor dormitory” to house black miners away from the white city center, Soweto grew into a sprawling metropolis of over 1.3 million people and became the epicenter of the struggle against Apartheid.

The township is home to Vilakazi Street, the only street in the world to have been home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners: Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was also the site of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, when thousands of students protested against the forced use of Afrikaans in schools. The police response and the subsequent death of 13-year-old Hector Pieterson catalyzed international condemnation of the Apartheid regime. Today, Soweto is a vibrant cultural hub, blending historical landmarks like the Orlando Towers (now used for bungee jumping) with a booming tourism industry and a sophisticated middle class. It represents the city’s resilience—a place born from segregation that transformed into a symbol of liberation and modern South African identity.