TMNP Activity Card system - there has to be a better way

[Duane_Bosch]

On 6/20/2023 at 10:05 AM, Jewbacca said:

They catch a heap of poachers every year, they have really made some places brilliant to visit.

The one ranger I have encountered in the reserve seemed more bothered by my mate recording his secret surf spot (Blackrocks) than catching any poachers.

I've also witnessed 2 bakkie loads of poachers in full diving gear driving past the HB market to jump on boats at 9.30 on a Friday night. No skaam at all.

From Tableview to Melkbos the catching of poachers is left to neighborhood watch groups.

I'm sorry mate. They do a dismal job of catching poachers.

[ChrisF]

5 hours ago, Anthem24 said:

..... we get charged a higher SADC fee in parks in other countries too, I think? .....

 

Correct !

 

Few years back we took a day trip from Kasane Botswana to Victoria falls in Zimbabwe.  Our tour guide was a local and KNEW the system !

 

At Victoria falls he warned us to keep our passports handy ... true as Bob, they wanted to charge us European rates !!  The difference between the SADC rates and the Euro rates was a serious amount !!!!

 

 

Even in Namibia many of the accommodation sites only publish "Euro rates".  When you know to introduce yourself as a South African do you get offered "local rates".  The one place a few km from Sossos Vlei wanted to charge us R3k per night, we drove off.  Weeks later we met one of their staff and spoke about our trip .... the rates came up in our chat.  "Oooo, but your should have told us you are South African.  You get a 50% discount ..."

[The Ouzo]

3 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Correct !

 

Few years back we took a day trip from Kasane Botswana to Victoria falls in Zimbabwe.  Our tour guide was a local and KNEW the system !

 

At Victoria falls he warned us to keep our passports handy ... true as Bob, they wanted to charge us European rates !!  The difference between the SADC rates and the Euro rates was a serious amount !!!!

 

 

Even in Namibia many of the accommodation sites only publish "Euro rates".  When you know to introduce yourself as a South African do you get offered "local rates".  The one place a few km from Sossos Vlei wanted to charge us R3k per night, we drove off.  Weeks later we met one of their staff and spoke about our trip .... the rates came up in our chat.  "Oooo, but your should have told us you are South African.  You get a 50% discount ..."

not just african countries that do this.

A number of years back I visited one of the Greek islands, its a large island so instead of hiring a scooter to get around we hired a car. When I produced my greek ID instead of my passport for proof of identification the rate per day dropped drastically. 

[Hairy]

So basically if every country agreed to drop the need to rip off other countries tourists when they come around we would have a better world.

[marko35s]

18 hours ago, Anthem24 said:

TMNP is hardly a cash cow! Of course the busy places like Cape Point (and Kruger) have to cross-subsidise national parks that have great conservation value but can't possibly pay for themselves.

I think most people have no objection to paying -- we buy day permits when we ride in Tygerberg or the winelands -- but we don't ask any northern suburbs people to join us on rides at Deer Park etc because there's no way they can buy a day permit. TMNP really could make it easier and help everyone stay 'legal' and rake in more money, even if they're not going to put it back into trail maintenance.

TMNP has more than enough self generated revenue to fund itself properly, the fact that the revenue does not get sufficiently reinvested into the park is what leads to the poor condition of much of the infrastructure.

Using that revenue elsewhere pretty much points to it being a cash cow.

That said maybe they are starting to realise it is a problem - https://www.news24.com/news24/community-newspaper/peoples-post/r36-million-set-aside-to-address-decay-in-table-mountain-national-park-20230620

[Jewbacca]

3 hours ago, Duane_Bosch said:

The one ranger I have encountered in the reserve seemed more bothered by my mate recording his secret surf spot (Blackrocks) than catching any poachers.

I've also witnessed 2 bakkie loads of poachers in full diving gear driving past the HB market to jump on boats at 9.30 on a Friday night. No skaam at all.

From Tableview to Melkbos the catching of poachers is left to neighborhood watch groups.

I'm sorry mate. They do a dismal job of catching poachers.

https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/470998/lobster-trawler-seized-6-suspects-arrested-in-anti-poaching-operation

https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/seas-under-siege-police-confiscate-440-000-abalone-poached-in-overberg-in-the-past-five-years-20220706

https://www.getaway.co.za/environment/abalone-and-lobster-poachers-arrested-in-cape-town/

There are many many others

They even caught and convicted people harvesting flowers and fynbos illegally.

I'm not really open for work at 21:30 at night, I'm not sure too many people are, but one article mentions 500 odd marine poachers caught and convicted in the last 4 years. 

I'd say that is a great result for a completely useless, defunct group who does nothing. I'd go further to say that it is a fantastic outcome DESPITE the fact that they are mismanaged, under funded, under staffed and answerable to a branch of the government in Pretoria that is absolutely the problem.

Anyway, I will continue to believe that mountain biking is not an important part of the overall mandate. 

As an avid trail runner, dog walker/runner, toddler and old person accompanier AND avid bike rider, I believe a large part of the greenbelts/mountain were better before bikes were allowed there.

Peace and love to you all on this winter Solstice

[Shebeen]

1 hour ago, marko35s said:

TMNP has more than enough self generated revenue to fund itself properly, the fact that the revenue does not get sufficiently reinvested into the park is what leads to the poor condition of much of the infrastructure.

Using that revenue elsewhere pretty much points to it being a cash cow.

That said maybe they are starting to realise it is a problem - https://www.news24.com/news24/community-newspaper/peoples-post/r36-million-set-aside-to-address-decay-in-table-mountain-national-park-20230620

FYI. highlights from the financials 2021/2022 I mentioned yesterday

Revenue = R1.7b  [0.9b 20/21]

Gov grant = R0.9b [1.5b 20/21]

Expenditure = R2.8b [2.5b]*

net loss of R200m

I don't expect Sanparks to make money, it's a world class national asset that is measured on other factors. every tourist who comes here specifically because Kruger is a bucketlist item will spend ~30x that money elsewhere in the country during the trip. But it does need to be run like a business. Having a no-value-add tenderpreneur skimming off the cape point entrance revenue is a perfect case in point.

*employee costs are R1.3b with 4000 directly employed. @R325k p.a. seems more lucrative to work at eskom but the view is not as nice at megawatt park. 

[marko35s]

13 hours ago, Shebeen said:

FYI. highlights from the financials 2021/2022 I mentioned yesterday

Revenue = R1.7b  [0.9b 20/21]

Gov grant = R0.9b [1.5b 20/21]

Expenditure = R2.8b [2.5b]*

net loss of R200m

I don't expect Sanparks to make money, it's a world class national asset that is measured on other factors. every tourist who comes here specifically because Kruger is a bucketlist item will spend ~30x that money elsewhere in the country during the trip. But it does need to be run like a business. Having a no-value-add tenderpreneur skimming off the cape point entrance revenue is a perfect case in point.

*employee costs are R1.3b with 4000 directly employed. @R325k p.a. seems more lucrative to work at eskom but the view is not as nice at megawatt park. 

Specific to the highlighted part of your post - in discussions with park management it appears that they try to bring in external contractors or put in place an outside company for any role that they do not see as part of their core skill set. The argument being that they want to concentrate on their core tasks and not spend time and money learning how to run a restaurant for instance.

As far as I am aware the company with the concession pays a rental to parks rather than parks paying them.

Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate.

[Headshot]

3 hours ago, marko35s said:

Specific to the highlighted part of your post - in discussions with park management it appears that they try to bring in external contractors or put in place an outside company for any role that they do not see as part of their core skill set. The argument being that they want to concentrate on their core tasks and not spend time and money learning how to run a restaurant for instance.

As far as I am aware the company with the concession pays a rental to parks rather than parks paying them.

Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate.

You would think that removing alien invasive species and fixing trails should be part of their core skill set. I think what they say is merely an excuse to justify not doing something they could if a decent budget was allocated to TMNP for such things. Also when you have contributing to the developmental state as an aim, conservation and preservation suffers, if you look at Tokai and Cecilia at the moment.Restaurants and other things like that are a different story.

[ChrisF]

3 hours ago, marko35s said:

Specific to the highlighted part of your post - in discussions with park management it appears that they try to bring in external contractors or put in place an outside company for any role that they do not see as part of their core skill set. The argument being that they want to concentrate on their core tasks and not spend time and money learning how to run a restaurant for instance.

As far as I am aware the company with the concession pays a rental to parks rather than parks paying them.

Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate.

 

Semantics .... devil IS in the details ....

 

This is not a matter of they "want", but of what their employer "allows" them to do.

 

Earning 2c off on the side while getting a Government pay check is seriously frowned upon - at least for this low level staff  (we all know these rules are ignored at many other levels ... different topic for a different thread)

 

 

As an example - Augrabies SAN Park used R1,5M worth of diesel during load shedding, but they only have R0,5M for this budget ..... they MUST run the genny to keep clients happy, but now have mountains of paperwork due to this.  The fact that this may be one of the "profitable" parks is besides the point.  Clients money goes straight to the "SAN Parks pot" ....  It is the system within which these staff must operate.  And I KNOW the staff at this park is SUPERB in their duties !!!

 

Spare a thought for those staff that go out of their way to do their job properly .... those that KNOW there are better ways, but are bound by a set of rules from above ....

 

 

O-well .... none of this helps the local TMNP trails .... but just maybe a few more will see the context @Jewbacca have been posting about time and again.  By far the most of the local staff are NOT the "problem".

[marko35s]

5 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Semantics .... devil IS in the details ....

 

This is not a matter of they "want", but of what their employer "allows" them to do.

 

Earning 2c off on the side while getting a Government pay check is seriously frowned upon - at least for this low level staff  (we all know these rules are ignored at many other levels ... different topic for a different thread)

 

 

As an example - Augrabies SAN Park used R1,5M worth of diesel during load shedding, but they only have R0,5M for this budget ..... they MUST run the genny to keep clients happy, but now have mountains of paperwork due to this.  The fact that this may be one of the "profitable" parks is besides the point.  Clients money goes straight to the "SAN Parks pot" ....  It is the system within which these staff must operate.  And I KNOW the staff at this park is SUPERB in their duties !!!

 

Spare a thought for those staff that go out of their way to do their job properly .... those that KNOW there are better ways, but are bound by a set of rules from above ....

 

 

O-well .... none of this helps the local TMNP trails .... but just maybe a few more will see the context @Jewbacca have been posting about time and again.  By far the most of the local staff are NOT the "problem".

I'm not sure why you are quoting me here.

Go back to my earlier posts where I specifically state the problem comes from above the heads of the local staff, who as I said for the most part do their best in trying circumstances.

[peepeekaitjie]

This thread has been going on for 2 years now. If you smart guys and girls haven't figured it out, how do you expect TMNP to?

[Shebeen]

4 hours ago, ChrisF said:

 

Semantics .... devil IS in the details ....

 

This is not a matter of they "want", but of what their employer "allows" them to do.

 

Earning 2c off on the side while getting a Government pay check is seriously frowned upon - at least for this low level staff  (we all know these rules are ignored at many other levels ... different topic for a different thread)

 

 

As an example - Augrabies SAN Park used R1,5M worth of diesel during load shedding, but they only have R0,5M for this budget ..... they MUST run the genny to keep clients happy, but now have mountains of paperwork due to this.  The fact that this may be one of the "profitable" parks is besides the point.  Clients money goes straight to the "SAN Parks pot" ....  It is the system within which these staff must operate.  And I KNOW the staff at this park is SUPERB in their duties !!!

 

Spare a thought for those staff that go out of their way to do their job properly .... those that KNOW there are better ways, but are bound by a set of rules from above ....

 

 

O-well .... none of this helps the local TMNP trails .... but just maybe a few more will see the context @Jewbacca have been posting about time and again.  By far the most of the local staff are NOT the "problem".

ok let's talk diesel

This was 2018 I think, but doubt things have changed.  The hotwater geysers at Nossob are heated by a diesel generator. The payback on a solar system there would be ~6 months, but hey must be a nice diesel supply contract for someone. (it's very hard not to be cynical when you see something so obvious) 

 

 

[Shebeen]

3 hours ago, peepeekaitjie said:

This thread has been going on for 2 years now. If you smart guys and girls haven't figured it out, how do you expect TMNP to?

thread is 23 months old, and has a 21 month break in it.

the issue is that nothing changed.

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

ok let's talk diesel

This was 2018 I think, but doubt things have changed.  The hotwater geysers at Nossob are heated by a diesel generator. The payback on a solar system there would be ~6 months, but hey must be a nice diesel supply contract for someone. (it's very hard not to be cynical when you see something so obvious) 

 

 

you forgot the generator service / maintenance tender in place ... so surely that 6month period can come down a little more?

[Shebeen]

oh. one thing to add.

 

TMNP did get a new Park Manager in feb. things could improve in time

https://www.sanparks.org/about/news/?id=58744