Mpumalanga’s Nature Reserves To Ensure Health & Safety Regulations During The Festive Season

The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) will continue to enforce the COVID-19 health and safety protocols at its nature reserves and tourist attractions alike. We will also ensure that other nature reserves and tourist attractions also implement these protocols during the busy festive season. This follows the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa for tourism attractions to ensure that all health and safety protocols are enforced during the busy festive season in order to avoid the resurgence of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All MTPA’s nature reserves will ensure that all tourism attractions are ready to welcome the large number of visitors during the festive season. All nature reserves will continue to be open to the public for various activities including game drives, hiking, fishing, hunting, etc. Accommodation and day visitor facilities will also be open.

“Visitors to the various provincial nature reserves and tourism attractions will be required to comply with social distancing, wearing of face mask, hand sanitizing as well as all the health and safety protocols that have been put in place to ensure the safety of all visitors”, said Mr Johannes Nobunga, CEO of MTPA.

“We have been working tirelessly to ensure that we prepare thoroughly for the expected arrivals of guests to these nature reserves during the festive season. Our security personnel will be vigilant at all times to inspect vehicles and root out unruly behavior. It is important to emphasize that failure to comply with the set protocols will result in denial of access to any of the tourism attractions in the province. Areas such as braai facilities, picnic sites, swimming pools and camping sites will be monitored on a regular basis to ensure that the public is kept safe at all times”, added Nobunga. “It is our responsibility to ensure that as we welcome large numbers of visitors during this festive period, our nature reserves, accommodation establishments and various tourism facilities will follow strict health protocols to safeguard both our staff and guests. We would like to ensure that our visitors have a memorable experience when visiting the province”, concluded Nobunga.

We would like to encourage those intending to visit our nature reserves for hiking and accommodation to make the necessary bookings prior through our central reservations office on reservations@mtpa.co.za and visit our website, www.mpumalanga.com for a list of our nature reserves situated at various parts of the province. We would further like to encourage visitors to use bank cards for full payment but also have cash available in case there are connectivity challenges that might be experienced.

Guests are reminded to continue to comply with the set regulations by observing social distancing at all times, wearing face masks and sanitizing their hands regularly to avoid disappointment. Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in guests being turned away at the gate.

We urge our guests to work with us and comply with these protocols in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19