This award recognises Popo Scott’s outstanding contribution to the furtherance of conservation, and the development of the Tsitsikamma National Park over a period of 43 years.
Popo Scott was born in Port Elizabeth in 1947. He was brought to the Tsitsikamma as a child and raised by his grandmother at Ryder’s sawmills, where Willie Ellis’s farm is now. He began clearing alien trees for SANParks in 1962, before Tsitsikamma National Park even existed. He was then around 15 years old. He remembers when the first ten houses for tourists were built in the Park in 1963 and the construction of the restaurant a year later.
In those days there weren’t separate departments so workers helped wherever they were needed. As a result Oom Popo tried his hand at everything from building and grass-cutting to making beds in the rest camp. At one stage he and his fellow workers enjoyed rowing tourists up the Stormsriver in a wooden boat, for which they were tipped well.
Oom Popo and Petrus Ngubu were on the team that built the first boardwalk in place of the little fisherman’s path to Stormsriver Mouth. He also has fond memories of building the otter trail huts, despite the fact that when they ran out of money for transport the workers had to carry materials from Boskor all along the trail’s steep dips and rises. Luckily there were many of them. When the huts were complete he received a bonus of R90. His hard work has since been honoured by having Scott Hut named after him. He also built many of the Park’s paths and the slipway to the Boat House. He was often given tasks to do without training and just had to work things out for himself.
Oom Popo lived through the eras of many different Park managers, some of whom were kinder than others. He recalls the old days when workers were beaten and how some would run away during the night to escape harsh treatment. He also remembers a time when no women were allowed in the Park.
During his 45 years in Tsitsikamma National Park Oom Popo has seen many people come and go and has watched the landscape change. He has built up a wealth of knowledge about every corner, every stone and bush. To him the most wonderful part of his work was learning construction. He started work without education and learned so many building skills that he still uses now. On his retirement he leaves behind something he built with his own hands that he is immensely proud of.
