This year’s conference is themed “Water, what next” and included WWF speakers from across Africa. The conference took a closer look at three South African cities – Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg – in the light of their particular water challenges.
Commenting on this year's award recipient, WWF South Africa CEO Dr Morné du Plessis said: “Mavuso Msimang is undisputedly one of the most significant contributors to the post-1994 conservation sector in South Africa and a worthy recipient of this year’s award. He has also served our organisation with dedication over the years, as a board member since 2011 and the chair of our social, ethics and transformation committee.”
Raised in KwaZulu-Natal, Msimang has a BSc (Entomology/ Biology) from the University of Zambia, and an MBA from the US International University in San Diego, California. He served on the MK Military High Command from 1966 to 1969, before being appointed as secretary to the then ANC president Oliver Tambo, a position he held from 1969 to 1971.
In 1977, he joined the United Nations, working in Zambia, Kenya and Ethiopia. He subsequently worked for the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and CARE International as country director in Ethiopia and Kenya, before being appointed head of emergency planning for WUSC working out of Ottawa, Canada.
After his return to South Africa, he was appointed CEO of SANParks from 1997. During his six years at the helm of SANParks, he was credited with transforming it into a broadly representative organisation, introducing a successful commercialisation programme and putting an end to the controversial culling of elephants in the Kruger National Park.
He oversaw the implementation of the organisation’s environmental and social responsibility programmes, involving communities around the parks by offering them employment and business opportunities, thereby broadening the participation base in conservation in South Africa.
Msimang is a cofounder and longstanding board member of the African Parks Foundation, established in 2000, a non-profit agency that manages over 10 million hectares of protected areas across Africa. Until recently, he served as chair of the board of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, a 330,000 hectare protected area in KwaZulu-Natal and has served as a board member of the Peace Parks Foundation focusing on transboundary conservation areas across southern Africa.
The Department of Environmental Affairs called him out of retirement to become its “rhinoceros conservation issue manager”. The brief was to solicit a wide range of views on the survival, conservation and management of rhinos. He chairs Corruption Watch and is an outspoken critic of public sector corruption and maladministration and has served for many years as the chair of the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation.
