©2009 Full Circle Magazine.
36
36
September 2009 Vol6 No9
tmnp
Traditionally, wildlife-management has
been the preserve of men, with the odd
exceptions such as Dian Fossey and Jane
Goodall. Things have changed in the last
20 years or so and more and more women
have made conservation their career
choice. South African National Parks, and
Table Mountain National Park in particular,
are no different. So far have they come
that, today, there is no role that women are
barred from playing.
Full Circle interviewed a few of TMNP’s
women employees to find out what motivates
them and how comfortably they fit into the
domain formerly dominated by men.
footpath-maintenance; fire-control and -fighting;
visitor-management issues; mugging;
vandalism; poaching and law-enforcement.
Leighan has always been fascinated by
conservation. At school her guidance
counsellors told her to forget about it but she is
a determined and focused person and decided
to pursue her dream against the advice. So she
studied without having any end-idea of where
or how she would use it. When the post with
TMNP became available she jumped at the
opportunity and has not looked back.
She would like to work in various parks
before ultimately managing a park herself.
For any girl wishing to get into field
conservation, Leighan advises that they
“toughen up because it’s not a place for softies
and you will be expected to perform as would
any other team member. It’s very important that
you job-shadow and try out everything you can
to find out for yourself if you really do have the
aptitude for such physically-demanding work.”
In her spare time, Leighan enjoys t’ai chi,
crafting, and hiking on weekends. “The higher
up you get,” confides Leighan, “the less time
you get to spend in the veld during the week!”
Mathabatha was born in Gauteng but grew up
in 2005 she was appointed to the permanent
position of Section Ranger for the Redhill area
which includes Redhill, Scarborough, Ocean
View and Kommetjie.
Mathabatha enjoys the fact that TMNP is an
urban conservation area and offers different
challenges to every other Park in South Africa.
She leads her team of five in dealing with
footpath maintenance, flower poaching, dog
walkers, land encroachment (specifically by the
Rastas of Ocean View) and generally
overseeing the well being of the area.
“I’ve taken ‘ownership’ of my area. I want to
make a difference in Scarborough and help
people understand I’m trying to meet their
needs and the biodiversity needs of the area.
Mathabatha has never experienced any
gender problems in her job. “Most issues arise
due to personalities and what’s important is
how you process those clashes. I always do
things my way,” she says confidently, “my
pushing attitude ensures I get things done! The
only ‘problem’ I’ve had is that some people in
the public think I’m too young to be a real
ranger!”
In her spare time Mathabatha loves
organising and coordinating functions, events
and parties. “I love entertaining!” she declares.
“But I talk too much,” she jokes, trying to
suppress her bubbly personality.
In the long-term she would like to relocate
back to Gauteng because she misses her
family and two-year-old son who lives with
Mathabatha‘s grandmother and mother. She is
studying for an environmental degree in
environmental impact assessment and her
dream is to own her own game farm.
Jaclyn grew up in Mitchells Plain and
As one of the first appointed rangers in Table
Mountain National Park, Leighan prepared
herself thoroughly for what lay ahead. She got
fit and readied herself to be as capable as
possible to do the job.
“Although Affirmative Action may have
opened the door, it was annoying to me to be
thought of as unworthy of my position,”
Leighan says. “So I really prepared myself!”
But she needn’t have worried. She goes on
to explain, “I’ve never felt like window-dressing.
SANParks is an understanding and
progressive organisation. The fact that I’m
female has never been the main reason for any
appointment or anything I’ve done. I’m an
important member of a team of capable
people.”
Leighan studied Parks and Recreational
Management at Cape Peninsula University of
Technology and first worked for the Cape Town
City Council. When TMNP was proclaimed in
1998 she was offered a contract post as an
Assistant Section Ranger. In 2005 she was
offered her current permanent position as
Senior Section Ranger of the Central Area of
TMNP which includes Silvermine, Elsie’s Peak,
the Noordhoek Wetland and the southern side
of Hout Bay.
Her role includes: veld-management; alien-
clearing; plant-monitoring; infrastructure- and
in Mokopane, Limpopo Province. She had no
specific reason for getting into conservation.
However, she always wanted to make a
difference and no black people in her
community had ever worked in the field. She
thought she could do something that would
make a difference and also set her apart in her
community.
She studied for a Diploma in Nature
Conservation at Pretoria Tech from 2000 to
2004 and when she did her experiential
training in TMNP, she fell in love with fynbos
because it was so different to what she knew.
She decided Cape Town was where she would
like to work. In October that year she earned a
contract appointment as an Assistant Project
Manager of the Alien Clearing programme and
Strandfontein. She wanted to be in the marine
biology field and studied nature conservation
at the Cape Peninsula University of
Technology, completing her diploma in 2006.
She did her experiential training at Betty’s
Leighan Mossop – Senior Section Ranger
Central Area, Sun Valley
Mathabatha Matjila – Section Ranger
Redhill, Klaasjagersberg
Jaclyn Smith – Project Manager Working
for Water, Sunnydale
It’s a Woman’s World!
