The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) will again open some of its nature reserves as part of the Mpumalanga Parks Week from September 9 to 13.
The Mahala Week is aimed at encouraging locals to visit the MTPA’s Nature Reserves during the month of September in order to promote a culture of travel and creating awareness about our natural heritage.
MTPA introduced the Mahala Week concept in 2015 and since then a number of people have taken advantage of this offer. A total of nine provincial nature reserves throughout the province will be open to the public during that week. This is strictly for day visitors only.
The national initiative is a worldwide campaign that was introduced in South Africa in 2006 seeing that most South Africans do not have access to the national parks. The idea is to encourage South Africans to take pride of the environment and our heritage sites. By so doing they will start to take care of the natural resources and understand the importance of conservation.
This initiative will afford MTPA an opportunity to showcase the provincial Nature Reserves. During this period day visitors will be allowed to enter the identified nature reserves free of charge. The intention is to create awareness and expose our communities to our natural resources at the same time instill the culture of travelling locally.
The free access into the selected nature reserves is strictly for day visitors only and does not include accommodation and other tourism activities on offer at those reserves for the selected period. In order to be allowed free access, visitors will be required to present their South African identity documents or valid South African driver’s licence. Should school groups wish to make use of this week, they should present a letter from the school endorsing the visit. The set terms and conditions for this duration will apply and we appeal to our locals to comply and support us with this initiative.
Our own Loskop Dam is part of this initiative.
For more information contact Lillian Simelane on 013 759 5354 | 081 805 5955 or visit us on www.mpumalanga.com
