News

The new year ushered in a new era for Mountain Zebra National Park – with the arrival of Evans Mkansi as its new Park Manager. This followed the transfer of the former head of the Park, Koketso Kotsoe to Marakele National Park.

Evans was previously employed as the Conservation Manager at Addo Elephant National Park – a position he held for just over a year. This was not his first job within SANParks, though. Evans says he considers South African National Parks (SANParks) to be home, as this is where he started his career – in Kruger National Park with his in-service training in 2000. He spent a good 14 years rising through the ranks and based in various sections of the Park over the years, culminating in the role of Regional Ranger based at Satara in 2014.

Thereafter a number of roles in both the public and private sectors followed, both in South Africa and beyond in Mozambique, until his arrival at Addo in October 2021. Evans’ wife and three children, aged 12, eight and three have moved with him.

“The time for me to be going up and down is gone. I need to settle down and wrap up my career at SANParks because this is home. I still have a number of years to learn new things and deliver,” he says.

Evans says he is looking forward to growing within his new portfolio as it’s the first time he’ll be engaged in other departments outside Conservation. “I accept and look forward to learning from my team on the ground who have many years of experience in what they do and the Park as a whole. I find myself very lucky to have landed in a team of good people. I haven’t worked with them for long, but they seem to be a group of hard workers who know their story, which in turn will make it easy for me to get my job done. I am not averse to being a student and starting from scratch,” he says.

About Mountain Zebra, he says “This Park has a totally different feel from what I’ve been exposed to and it excites me. I believe it has lots of potential for growth and I can’t wait to steer it in that direction.”

His message to his new team is clear, “I admire all of you. You each have a special strength or skill and you’re all truly dedicated to the cause and SANParks. Please just keep doing what you are doing. You have my 100 percent support and I will be with you all the way.”

Enquiries

Fayroush Ludick
Regional Communications Manager
Cell: 082 888 0201; E-mail: [email protected]