GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Two staff members at Camdeboo National Park walked away with awards for outstanding work at this year’s South African National Parks (SANParks) Frontier Region awards evening held at Profcon Resort in Graaff-Reinet last week.

The awards take place annually, and give recognition to individuals, teams and parks for excellent performance in the previous financial year. The Frontier Region is made up of the Addo Elephant, Camdeboo, Karoo and Mountain Zebra National Parks. The awards bestowed were based on the 2015/16 financial year.

Ferdie Serfontein (Technical Department) and James Maarman (Conservation) were both recognised in the Excellent Performance in the Workplace category for their assistance in the transition period between Park Managers last year.

During this time, Ferdie often undertook numerous tasks which were not a part of his assigned duties and he wouldn’t hesitate to assist colleagues or work overtime if needed. He consistently identified challenges throughout the park, and usually had solutions to these readily available. His work is consistently of outstanding quality and he is extremely knowledgeable in a number of fields.

James, meanwhile, played an exceptional stand-in role as Section Ranger for an extended period. During this time he undertook numerous duties which he had never been tasked with before – yet managed to complete them all timeously and successfully. He volunteered to work extra duties, completed several hours of overtime and was always on-call when needed. James was commended for his planning, leadership and all-round team player skills.

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