Why is it that even when humans set out to achieve something meritorious and noble it is inevitable that something or someone will suffer consequences? Kruger National Park is a wonderful place where animals can exist in an almost natural state, in relative safety and relative freedom. Upon payment of a fee, visitors are allowed in, subject to opening and closing times and other rules, to drive round and view whatever creatures they can find. Maps and guidebooks are provided to assist the planning of what birds and beasts are around and where they might be found. The entry fees go towards the maintenance and upkeep of the park and to provide sufficient security. The security is not that for people from wild animals but the other way round. Anyone found wandering will be shot first and interrogated later (according to brother-in-law Dan). Whilst this may seem harsh, most wanderers are likely to be poachers after a few kilos of rhino horn or ivory. They are armed to their ivory teeth and dangerous, so it is deemed better that they be shot than a park ranger be shot whilst protecting the animals that keep him employed. It is, in fact, a high-tech war that is being fought with large calibre rifles, night scopes, suppressors on one side and helicopters and drones on the other, supplied and supported by the military. Rangers, too, are susceptible to blackmail for invaluable intelligence. Tracking devices have been ‘invisibly’ fitted to rhino bodies and horn so that both can be found.
The park was originally set up in 1898 at the instigation of the then Transvaal president Paul Kruger, and known as Sabie Game Reserve. Unrestrained hunting had caused the rapid demise of animal populations and so it was decided that they needed a bit of human assistance and protection. In 1902 a Scotsman, James Stevenson-Hamilton, was appointed as head ranger and the success story has since gone from strength to strength. In 1923 it was decided to open up the park to visitors traveling with South African Railways. In 1927 the first private cars were granted entry upon the payment of a fee. All the iconic animals of Africa are to be found within its boundaries. There’s the ‘big five’ – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. Giraffe, zebra, cheetah, wildebeest, hyena, warthog, and any other animal that you might recognise from a David Attenborough documentary, are all there. It is not a safari park in the UK definition, with animals separated for protection from each other, and in known and limited locations. In Kruger there is no guarantee of seeing anything in particular. Then again, there is always the possibility of seeing something truly amazing.
But there’s a human cost. The land was inhabited by the Tsonga people. Kruger took their land and claimed it for the park. The collapse of apartheid in 1992 and the realisation of black majority rule gave them the idea that they might get their land back and so, since 1994, they have been involved in a land claim dispute with the South African Government. In 1969 the government forcibly removed the Makulele people from north of the park so that their tribal lands could be incorporated into the greater Kruger National Park. In 1996 they too submitted a land claim and, although their land has been returned, they have chosen not to resettle but to invest in tourism.
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