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 tightened security with camera surveillance, vehicle monitoring and visitor screening as part of anti-poaching measures.
Kotsoe declined to disclose the number of rhinos in the park, but said Marakele was continuing with its expansion plans despite the poaching threat.
“Marakele is [also] wanting to expand the population of our black and white rhinos. Because of the pressure at the Kruger National Park, they should rather have an alternative home.
“[W]e have the second largest population outside the Kruger, but it’s small, so we need to expand on that. Our expansion is to create a safe haven for our black and white rhinos,” he said.
Expansion is needed because limited space is constraining rhino population growth and increasing conflict among dominant bulls. The plan envisages growing the park from its current size into a far larger protected landscape over time.
Head of tourism Sipho Zulu said two properties adjoining the park had already been secured, with more land acquisitions planned as funding became available.
“But it’s not easy because money is a challenge within the government. Most of the time, we do it through our kitty….” he said.
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Zulu said there were no plans to buy the neighbouring Welgevonden Game Reserve, but discussions were under way about closer incorporation and the possible removal of fences to allow freer animal movement between the areas.
He said high-level negotiations were continuing, alongside an assessment of whether such a merger would work from a grazing and ecological management perspective.
Zulu said the Greater Marakele Security Cluster remained central to anti-crime efforts in the area, with 24-hour ranger deployment and cooperation between Marakele and neighbouring private reserves.
The cluster links security information in real time between joint operations centres in the area.
“This area is secured, everywhere you go when you are within Waterberg, there are cameras monitoring vehicles. [W]hen people come into the park, their IDs and vehicles are scanned,” he said.
Kotsoe also said the park had a sizeable animal population for its current size, including an elephant herd approaching 400, which he said remained manageable. SANParks said in 2024 that Marakele had just under 400 elephants.