Minister of Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy announced the closure of all of South Africas National Parks as part of the nationwide lockdown.
The lockdown will begin at midnight on Thursday, 26 March and will last until 16 April.
Creecy explained that the national parks will be closed to visitors and that those international visitors from identified high-risk countries who are currently in the parks are being identified and quarantined.
‘We are currently developing a list of all of those visitors, all of them have been placed in isolation areas in our parks and we have been in discussion with the Department of Health and also the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) once we have those lists of visitors in terms of the way forward,’ she said.
Outside of the visitor and tourist aspects, all other park activities will continue.
These include ranger and wildlife management services. This will ensure continued protection of local communities, parks property and wildlife.
Creecy also announced that the Tswane Zoo will also continue with all animal care while closed to visitors.
The list of all 19 national parks that will be closed includes:
1. Kruger National Park
2. Addo Elephant National Park
3. Table Mountain National Park
4. Augrabies Falls National Park
5. Bontebok National Park
6. West Coast National Park
7. Tsitsikamma National Park
8. Mokala National Park
9. Namaqua National Park
10. Golden Gate Highlands National Park
11. Agulhas National Park
12. Karoo National Park
13. Mountain Zebra National Park
14. Garden Route National Park
15. Camdeboo National Park
16. Richtersveld National Park
17. iSimangaliso Wetland Park
18. Kgalagadi National Park
19. Mapungubwe National Park
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