Marakele presses on with expansion as rhino poaching threat persists

Simon Nare

Marakele National Park is pressing ahead with plans to expand its footprint in Limpopo’s Waterberg Biosphere as it steps up efforts to protect its rhino population from increasingly sophisticated poaching networks, including alleged insider involvement.

The park covers about 66,629 hectares, and expansion will, in part, ease spatial pressure on its black and white rhino populations.

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Park manager Koketso Kotsoe told reporters during a media excursion this week that poachers had infiltrated the ranger corps, with some allegedly tipping off syndicates about patrol movements and, in some cases, taking part directly in rhino killings.

Kotsoe said the park had responded by introducing an integrity training programme for rangers.

Some rangers were driven by greed while others were lured by money offered by poaching networks, Kotsoe said.

Marakele, one of the country’s Big Five national parks, has