The director of the Kruger National Park, David Mabunda, is tipped to become the new head of South African National Parks (SANParks).
Mabunda has been identified as the preferred candidate for the job by the SANParks board. Cabinet is expected to ratify the board’s decision next Wednesday, October 8. He will take over as CEO of the country’s 20 national parks from Mavuso Msimang, who has moved on to head the State Information Technology Agency.
Mabunda, who grew up in Mataffin, near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga, has been director of the Kruger park since 1998. He has a master’s degree in management and has been credited with transforming the flagship reserve from an apartheid-era dinosaur into a more representative organisation.
For most of this year he has been studying for a PhD in ecotourism marketing with the University of Pretoria, and Josias Chabani has filled the role of the Kruger park’s acting director. Once the SANParks appointment has been formalised, the board will start the process of appointing a new director for the Kruger park.
One of the first issues facing the new appointees will be whether to cull elephants in the Kruger park.
Mabunda and Chabani have recently been quoted as saying that unless the number of elephants is drastically reduced very little will be left of the park in five years’ time. Culling was stopped in 1995 and Mabunda had often spoken out against it.
During his time as head of Kruger park Mabunda survived hysteria over its commercialisation, floods that destroyed his house and ravaged large areas of the reserve in 2000, and controversy surrounding a fire that killed 23 casual labourers working in the park in 2001.