Addo Elephant National Park’s rangers came out on top in the Best Performing Ranger Post category at this year’s SANParks Frontier Regional Achievement Awards. The rangers are responsible for the main game-viewing area of the Park. The Frontier Region is made up of the Addo Elephant, Camdeboo, Garden Route, Karoo and Mountain Zebra National Parks.
Hapoor Dam in Addo Elephant National Park. Image: Charmaine Joubert.
The awards evening takes place annually, giving recognition to individuals, teams and parks for outstanding service in the previous financial year – in this case 2018/19. This year’s was held at the Africanos Country Estate near Addo on Thursday 25 July.
The Addo team of dedicated rangers were commended for their high levels of conservation management, especially given that they are responsible for the section with the most tourist pressure in the region.
Not only did they not have any incidents of serious poaching, but they also participated in several joint security operations with the SAPS and private game reserves. Several of the team members even assisted other sections or parks when in crises – the most notable being the search for the missing lion from the Karoo National Park earlier this year.
During a time of persistent drought, these rangers were also responsible for maintaining the most water points in the Park, ensuring its inhabitants had a constant water supply.
Three individual awards were bestowed upon staff who were deemed to have excelled in their duties, namely:
– Chad Nelson (Receptionist) – Excellent Performance in the Workplace
– Nwabisani “Korsten” Hendricks (Marine Ranger) – Regional Manager’s Award
– Sinor Witbooi (Duty Manager) – Regional Manager’s Award
Frontier Regional General Manager Dries Engelbrecht congratulated all the recipients of the awards and thanked them for their selfless work. He was joined in congratulating his staff by SANParks’ Managing Executive: Parks, Property Mokoena, who flew in specially to attend the awards evening.
‘You are examples of the quality of staff we have working in our national parks. Your dedication, passion and loyalty are evident in everything you do, and we hope that receiving these awards tonight will go a long way in not only motivating you to carry on in this fashion but also see your colleagues striving for better.
‘I, along with your Regional Manager and other top management in the region, am very proud of all the winners this evening, as well as all the other staff members who were nominated,’ Mokoena said.
Image: Charmaine Joubert
