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The Kudu Awards are South African National Parks Awards (SANParks) awards which take place annually to honour those people who are contributing positively in the conservation industry. This, usually go hand in hand with the CEO awards, where the CEO, Mr Fundisile Mketeni honours those individuals that make the Parks shine in every way possible.

Gladstone Section, a very neat and organised ranger post, one that has the most disciplined cadre of rangers was awarded the best ranger post in the organisation. This ranger post had strengthened strategic law enforcement relationships for the park and their dedication towards improving ecological and general park integrity is evident due to improved “state of Area Integrity Management (SoAIM) results for the past financial year in comparison with the years before. With Golden Gate being the only national park that protects the grassland biome, the fire management plan is implemented impeccably in order to ensure sustainable grassland conservation.

This section executes patrols on horseback throughout the 34 000 ha very escarpments along the Lesotho international border. In order to maximise the effectiveness of the horse patrols this section developed a cutting edge horse management plan that is currently being implemented, these patrols have assisted the park and its stakeholders to combat poaching, dagga smuggling, stock theft and illegal grazing.

Tankiso Dlamini received his award for Best Customer Service whilst Oupa Mokoena also walked away with Excellent Performance in the workplace. Oupa is a Supervisor at Highlands Mountain Retreat and Tankiso is a Banqueting attendant at the hotel. Golden Gate believes very strongly in the vision statement of the organisation of “A sustainable system of national parks connecting society”. As a result, the park understands the importance of taking stakeholder relationships seriously in order to achieve in its mandate.

N3 gateway tourism association which is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing tourism associations in the country representing over 1500 stakeholders through the N3 corridor and beyond, is one of the strong tourism and marketing partners of Golden Gate and they walked away with a Kudu award for best associated partner.

“After we won the Northern Region Awards, I have always maintained that we will take it all the way to the Kudu Awards, and I am super happy at what we have achieved tonight” said Victor Mokoena who until this month has been acting Park Manager of this prestigious park and the recipient of the coveted Leadership award on the night. Victor further added that he wishes the new Park Manager who took office earlier this month, well and assured him that team Golden Gate and the entire organisation will support him to make sure that this stays a winning park.

“I am extremely proud of our achievements at these awards, just confirms what I usually tell people that hard-work and dedication do pay off- with the feedback that I got about Golden Gate , I know the Golden Gate employees have really been through a lot and this should actually comfort them and give them assurance that they are force to be reckoned with” said Mr Lombard Shirindzi, General Manager of the Northern Region Parks.

Issued By

South African National Parks (SANParks) Northern Region Communication

Enquiries

Divhani Maremba
SANParks Regional Communications Manager: Northern Region
Tel: 012 426-5304; cell: 0745885789
E-mail: [email protected]