GARDEN ROUTE NATIONAL PARK CELEBRATES STAFF EXCELLENCE AT ANNUAL REGIONAL AWARDS
On Friday, 31 October 2025, the Garden Route National Park held its annual Achievement Awards at Villa Castollini in Brenton-on-Sea, Knysna, to honour staff excellence and recognize outstanding contributions across multiple categories.This year’s event was particularly special, as it attended by colleagues from across the park’s three main sections, Tsitsikamma, Knysna, and Wilderness and its stakeholders. The celebration brought together 150 staff members from all disciplines to honour their dedication, passion, and exceptional contributions to conservation and service excellence.
This increase in attendance reflects the continued growth of the Garden Route National Park team, as well as the rising enthusiasm among staff to celebrate excellence and unity across departments. It also speaks to the park’s strengthened culture of collaboration, recognition, and pride in the vital role each employee plays in fulfilling SANParks’ conservation mandate. Winners were recognised across several categories, including Excellent Performance in the Workplace, Best Constituency Builder, Lifetime Contribution, Overall Best Performer, Regional General Manager’s Award, Leadership Development Award, Leadership Award, Best Ranger Post, Best Performing Camp of the Year, Best Performing Park of the Year, and Best Performing Division.
A highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Regional General Manager’s Award to Ms Cheryl Wiley, Officer: Human Capital Management in celebration of her 35 years of dedicated service in the Human Resources office. Ms Wiley has been an integral part of the Garden Route team, and the award honours her remarkable contribution as she prepares to retire at the end of November 2025.Additionally, four long-serving employees were honoured with the Lifetime Contribution Award in recognition of their remarkable dedication, loyalty, and decades of service to the organization.
The Regional Communications Manager of the Garden Route National Park, Mr Phokela Lebea won the Overall Best Performance Award.Among the winners, Wilderness Section walked away with the Best Performing Park of the Year Award, while the Storms River Mouth Rest Camp from the Tsitsikamma Section took home the Best Performing Camp of the Year Award.
All regional winners will now go on to compete with the other regions and represent the Garden Route National Park at the SANParks Kudu Awards, which will be hosted in November 2025 in Gauteng.SANParks extends its gratitude to The Water Club for sponsoring the design and production of certificates and trophies, and to Camping RetrEats for their donation of premium retrEat vouchers valued at R72 000 to the winners. We also express our appreciation to the broader Garden Route business community for their continued support in making the Garden Route Achievement Awards a resounding success.
