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Heavy flooding is seen within a camp in the Kruger National Park precinct in this image captured on 16 January 2026.
SanParks has called for both private and public support to help restore the Kruger National Park.
The park is gradually recovering from damage caused by recent devastating floods that significantly impacted the northern region of Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
Letaba, Satara, Olifants, and Shingwedzi Camps are among the worst affected, while Shingwedzi remains cut off.
The cost of the damage is estimated to exceed half a billion rand.
SANParks spokesperson JP Louw says the recently launched Kruger Recovery Fund will be key to rehabilitating the camps.
“We are in the reality that insurance, for example, will not cover all of our needs, financially that is. Even the operational budget won’t cover all of those things. So, that is why the minister, Minister (Willie) Aucamp announced what is called Kruger Recovery Fund and this Fund is now set up. It operates through an account of First National Bank. The details of it are on the SANParks website. It is on our socials as well. We are targeting private sector; we are targeting also international donors as well.”
SANParks Head Ranger, Cathy Dreyer, says the recent floods were the most severe ever experienced in the park.
“Currently, the focus is on trying to get the infrastructure up and running. Obviously, first focusing on access routes. So currently, the north and the south of the park are separated because of the damage to the Letaba high and low water bridges. So, that is the priority to be repaired. So, getting access up and running and as you can see in the camp that we are now, there’s a lot of work going into services repaired obviously water, electricity, communications, supplies are quite important and slowly getting the rest camps open. It is obviously a phased approach. The roads are still water locked, fields are still very wet when you fly. There’s still a lot of water around. So, its very difficult to access all the areas and it is going to take a lot of time because we have to wait for the conditions to improve before we can do that.”
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