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Yet more attacks in Table Mountain National Park – do we have to wait for yet another death we before see action?
At their media junket in at end February 2021 SANParks made much of the R2bn Mission Area Joint Operations Centre (MAJOC) which they would be launching at some yet to be disclosed future date. The operation, deemed to mimic the MAJOCs that fight rhino-poaching in Kruger (the irony of that, with our rhino population down between 66% and 70% in the past decade, is not lost on us) is intended to address all aspects of safety and security in Table Mountain National Park.
The centre is being created by, in the words of the Daily Maverick, “the park’s chief security consultant, hard-boiled military man Otch Otto”. The Daily Maverick in its investigative report of 7 March noted that, “During the next 15 years, “American and European” donors would likely have to mobilise some $144-million (R2-billion) for far-reaching security upgrades in the park – featuring, among others, a new flagship mega joint-operations centre and a beefed-up surveillance network.”
Andre van Schalkwyk of Table Mountain Watch – a collective of concerned citizens – says he has no idea where SANParks are with their planning, but points to further incidents of crime; one in the mountains above Soetwater in which three trail runners were attacked, one sustaining mild injuries, the other an attempted mugging near the Bos 400 wreck. “The incidents are ongoing,” says van Schalkwyk, “It’s just a matter of time before we have another ICU case or death in the Park.”
“For years we have put forward suggestions and proposals for the joint management of safety in the Park. For as many years we were met with reluctance and outright rejection of solutions. Now we’re told about this MAJOC but there are no clear set of objectives or timelines. There’s a vague reference to two years of development, which we know is rubbish, given Otto was only brought in towards the end of 2020 on an initial contract due to have ended in March this year.”
Van Schalkwyk refers to SANParks’ claim that the organisation works with the City and Law Enforcement, and points to the City of Cape Town’s Public Emergency Contact Centre (PECC). “The PECC is already established and already provides a ‘Single Number’ interface to all emergency agencies, except of course for Table Mountain National Park – whose desk is empty and has been for years.”
The MAJOC sounds, says van Schalkwyk, like yet another mega ANC project, which risks being subject to the usual mismanagement and corruption. He points to the Park’s 2019/2020 income of R307 973 959 in 2018 and R371 657 366 in 2019 and asks, as many others have, where the bulk of that money goes once its reaches Pretoria’s coffers. “How we can even begin to trust this new solution?” he asks.
Table Mountain Watch believes that the integrated Neighbourhood Watch, Private Security, SAPS, Ranger and City PECC model – that has already been presented to TMNP management (2018/2019) – is a far more effective solution. It is actually already in place given the existing control centres all around the Park and the fact that City Law Enforcement, SAPS and other resources are ready to deploy in each sector at a moment’s notice – it just needs TMNP to come on board.
“SANParks should rather be taking the R2bn they hope to raise and invest it in real time Internet of Things (IoT) technology, which includes drones, CCTV and sensor surveillance. This would go a long way to solving SANParks’ often lamented issues of manpower and park size,” says van Schalkwyk
Utilizing technology and existing resources in this way would work equally well for crime related activities as it would for fire and even landslide prevention. “It can even monitor dam wall movement at places like Silvermine where we have seen previous issues of cracks and leakage.”
The bottom line for van Schalkwyk is for the urgent presentation of deliverables, committed time frames and far more integrated people, process and technology solutions. SANParks, he says, needs to be held to account. “Just sticking a helicopter in the air and not talking to us is not going to cut it.”
“If SANParks don’t get this together, and tell us what and by when they are getting it together, then as users and concerned citizens, we will have no choice but to seek relief through the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, just as the NPO Parkscape did in 2016-2018,” says van Schalkwyk.