However, we have to find ways of managing these assets by attracting tourists in order to generate revenue to sustain conservation management, without necessarily relying on the taxpayer. Like other institutions of this kind, South African National Parks has a past that is inextricably linked with the apartheid system. It now needs to be converted into a true South African institution. By appointing to senior positions competent and skilled South Africans, who were previously disenfranchised, we will be laying down solid foundations for them to take us forward into the millennium. Our intention is to decentralise management.
Hierarchies tend to spawn bureaucracy.
By their very nature, bureaucracies stifle communication and slow down progress. We plan to have a flattened management structure and plan to manage each park as a business unit. Talk of managing parks like a business seems to cause concern as people think we are contemplating over-commercialising the parks. No, what we mean is that a park manager or park warden should understand the concept of balance sheets, regardless of whether or not a park is profitable. However, opportunities of realising an income from park operations should be seized vigorously.