National parks beef up their security to protect visitors

Security at national parks is being beefed up in a bid to protect visitors. This comes in the wake of several attacks at various parks across South Africa in recent months. A workshop was held in Knysna this week to discuss the risks, threats and vulnerabilities, particularly to the Garden Route National Park. The workshop was part of Operation Reboot – a security initiative that focuses on beefing up security as well as working with the police, community policing forums and other law enforcement agencies. South African National Parks (SANParks) special project head Major-General Johan Jooste led the workshop and said part of the short- to medium-term intervention was to equip rangers with more skills and strengthen interagency alliances. Garden Route park’s Nandi Mgwadlamba said the workshop was part of a national project aimed at beefing up security at all national parks. “While most of our rangers are trained to protect the environment, we now need to retrain them to protect visitors as well. “This will require new skills and technology.” Mgwadlamba said the plan also entailed the deployment of more rangers. SANParks would also work with rescue organisations, which could also train rangers in assisting with rescue missions.

“It is a police competency to combat crime, but it is equally important to solidify agreements with the police and policing forums.” Mgwadlamba said the Garden Route park had seen an increase in visitors across all seasons. While security had been heightened in high-occupancy seasons, there was now a need to balance efforts all year. Park manager Paddy Gordon said the open-access nature of the park made it vulnerable. “The park is also fragmented, with pockets of private land in between,” she said Gordon said the park was implementing both internal and external systems to secure the parks. SANParks frontier region spokeswoman Fayroush Ludick said the Garden Route park was mostly a free access park. “This is not the case at Addo – all our sections or areas [there] are only accessible via security checkpoints or reception areas. “We are constantly adapting, changing and improving our security systems as the need arises, and our staff as well as those of our security company receive constant training all year to deal with as many foreseeable issues as possible,” she said. “The park is mandated to control access and to ensure the safety of visitors, and on both of these we will not compromise.” Last month, a Dutch couple were robbed of their valuables in the Garden Route park while on a hiking trail, and there have been other attacks.