Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Willie Aucamp says the damage to the Kruger National Park (KNP) has been “substantial and will require a lot of money to repair the reserve.
The minister provided an update on Saturday after SAN Parks closed the Kruger National Park to all day visitors while dozens of travellers and staff were evacuated due to flooding.
The majestic bush setting of the Kruger National Park has been swamped by large bodies of water that engulfed visitor camps, staff accommodation and bridges.
‘Huge rains’
Aucamp said the Kruger National Park experienced a huge amount of rain over the past few weeks
“The rain started in the north, on the 9th of January, already, and it was really excessive rain that we have experienced. In the north, on the 10th of January, they had to really start to evacuate people from there.”
Aucamp said despite the devastating floods, there were no fatalities.
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Animals?
“As we sit here, after all these floods, not one single person died, not even one single person got injured, and I think that is the most important thing.
“People also ask what happens to the animals. We’ve got the South African Weather Services that gives us early warning systems. The animals have got that built into them. They already started to move to higher ground before the water really came down, and you could see we traveled by air today, we did not see one single carcass. There’s not one single animal that we could see that died due to these floods,” Aucamp said.
Kruger National Park… pic.twitter.com/O01Sw3Bd4q
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) January 17, 2026
North of Kruger
Aucamp said there were more problems in the north of the Kruger National Park.
“The Pafuri and Shingwedzi are cut off. You cannot reach them. And then only 13th of January, the Letaba area was also evacuated very early in the morning. Nobody could predict what will happen with the river beds.
“There was videos on social media of the flood in the Letaba area, and Letaba is the only camp in Kruger, where the flood levels now is higher than it was in 2 000. So, the restaurant area, as well as the whole of the perimeter units, was flooded first, and we evacuated the people, and that was done in time, because the rest of the Letaba camps also got flooded during the course of the day,” Aucamp said.
VIDEOS | The Kruger National Park has taken a precautionary decision not to allow day visitors until further notice. This is due to persistent and heavy rainfall affecting Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Earlier this week several day visitors were unable to exit the park after a bridge… pic.twitter.com/CWoN4b2cNT
— SABC News (@SABCNews) January 15, 2026
Extensive damage
Aucamp said officials conducted a flyover of the Kruger National Park, and the extensive damage was obvious.
“It is clear, obviously the flooding have subsided now. But now you can see the damage, and the damage is substantial. The high water bridge at Letaba, on the southern side of that bridge. It washed away completely. So that is a huge task to rebuild, but we will have to get an engineer’s report on the bridge’s strength to see whether it’s been compromised.
“All the railing of that Letaba Bridge has been washed away. It really looks like something out of a Star Wars movie. And the bridge itself also is washed away at the southern end of that. So there will have to be a lot of planning going into how we’re going to have access in the future,” Aucamp said.
Aucamp said there is a lot of damage in the Kruger National Park itself.
“In the camp itself, it’s clear that there’s a lot of damage there as well. Again, nobody got injured. People have been evacuated in time, and the fact that there are damage to material things.”
⚠️ EXTREME FLOODING – KRUGER NATIONAL PARK ⚠️
Footage received shows severe flooding at Letaba Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park, following intense and persistent rainfall in the region.
Water levels have risen rapidly, with significant inundation of low-lying areas. This… pic.twitter.com/VdYYgEsPk2
— Nature Chapter (@NatureChapter) January 17, 2026
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Kruger Relief Fund
Aucamp said the Kruger National Park is already busy with a plan of how its going to approach the repairs
“Camps like Letaba will take time. No other camps in the South received damage. “In order to start to rebuild the Kruger National Park, we will need money, and we have decided to create a Kruger relief fund. That fund will be formed by independent auditors, well-known auditors who will form the fund and manage it.
“I can promise you now that although we do not have an estimate at this stage of the total amount of damage that it will cost to repair that, it will be extremely high. We should not lie to each other, the damage in Kruger is expensive,” Aucamp said.
Appeal
Aucamp also appealed to the corporate entities and people in the nature conservation industry, to make donations so that SAN Parks can bring the Kruger National Park back to standard.
“Before we are going to do that, we will have a plan in place. You will know exactly where your money is going to, and there will be measures in place to make sure that the money that we receive here will not go for anything else than rebuilding Kruger.
What about reservations?
Aucamp said visitors who had reservations at the Kruger National Park were given the option to move their reservations to a different date at no cost.
He said if they cannot do that, they will get a refund.
“So no visitor out there has lost anything due to not being able to come to Kruger and I think that, in itself, is also something that is commendable.”
Aucamp lauded all the rangers and staff, and those who worked so hard behind the scenes, for their dedication to ensure that visitors were safe and no lives were lost.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Staff evacuated from Kruger Park as weather service says things to get worse
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