Creating the Reserve
In 1902, just after the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, feisty Scotsman Colonel James Stevenson-Hamilton was sent to the Lowveld to run the Sabi Game Reserve.
The idea of wildlife conservation had detractors; many people, most notably hunters, were fervently opposed to it especially in one of the last remaining game-rich parts of the country. Even President Kruger had been an opponent, only acceding to the creation of the reserve after the bill's third round through the Volksraad, in 1898. Fortunately, public opinion changed, and the idea of a national parks system gained momentum.
Wily Stevenson-Hamilton curried the support of some influential men, but his masterstroke was proposing a name for the first park (which incorporated Sabi) that few in the Afrikaner government of the day would vote against. Without the Kruger National Park and its far-sighted first warden, it is unlikely we would have any national parks today. The huge bust outside the park's main gate should really be his.
By David Bristow
Under the effective leadership of James Stevenson-Hamilton, the Sabi and Shingwedzi Reserves were doing well. They had grown exponentially i...
The Shingwedzi region was (and is) very remote and very beautiful. Unlike the south and central parts of the reserve, Shingwedzi is quite mo...
Once the trauma of the Second Anglo-Boer War ended, the entire country was in a state of uncertainty. The British Lord Milner was now in con...
It was make or break time for the Sabi Reserve. Either it was going to be declared a national park, as per the recommendation of the Game Re...
When the Kruger National Park became a reality, there was much work to be done. One of the stipulations of the National Park Act was that th...
Early visitors were given a relatively free hand in their new national park. Speeding motor vehicles kicked up huge clouds of dust as they h...
The first rondavels in the Kruger National Park were built in the ‘Selby’ style (named after an American engineer who served on the Park...
South Africa's transition from an Apartheid state to a democracy in 1994 brought far-reaching changes in almost every sphere. For the first ...
The discovery of the world’s richest gold reef on the Witwatersrand in 1886 signalled a sea-change in the economic development of the Tran...
The park authorities had to break a number of eggs to make the Kruger National Park omelette. The consequences of these land claims could be...
In the beginning, the National Parks Board was resistant about the Makuleke’s claim to the Kruger Park Land. As Lambson Makuleke (a member...