Grasslands National Park: What South Africa’s Newest National Park Means for Travellers
South Africa has a new national park, and it has no lions, no lodges and, for now, no front gate. Grasslands National Park was declared on 9 October 2026 in the Eastern Cape highlands between Nqanqarhu and Rhodes, and it protects a landscape most safari itineraries drive straight past: high-altitude grassland.
Here is what was declared, why a park full of grass matters to the rest of the country, and what it does (and doesn’t yet) mean if you’re planning a trip.
What was declared
Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister David Maynier made the declaration under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act of 2003, and it was published in Government Gazette No. 55531. The park is made up of 18 properties covering a little over 10,225 hectares. Management has been assigned to South African National Parks (SANParks), the body that runs Kruger, Addo and the rest of the national park network.
This wasn’t an overnight decision. A notice of intention to declare the park was published in 2025, and the project itself goes back to 2019, when SANParks and WWF South Africa began working on it together. WWF led much of the coordination on the ground, according to the official government statement.
Why Grasslands National Park works differently
Most South African national parks were built the familiar way: land bought or set aside, a fence put up, people and livestock moved out. Grasslands National Park is the first national park established mainly through biodiversity stewardship. Landowners keep ownership of their land and sign voluntary, long-term agreements committing it to agreed conservation and management rules. Farming that fits with conservation carries on.
That matters in a district where communal and commercial farmers graze cattle across the mountains. WWF project coordinator Thembanani Nsibande told BusinessTech the park is “absolutely not about fencing the park and moving people off the land”. Instead, the project leans on conservation grazing. Farmers who join grazing associations have been offered a lower levy at nearby cattle auctions, cheaper vaccinations and free training in cattle management, and healthier grassland means better-conditioned cattle that fetch higher prices.
It’s also worth knowing that early plans, reported in 2021, spoke of a park of roughly 30,000 hectares. What has been declared is about a third of that. WWF has said its goal is formal stewardship agreements with all stakeholders in the wider park area, so this looks more like a starting footprint than a final map.
Why a park for grass matters
Grassland is one of South Africa’s least protected biomes. It’s easy to overlook from a game vehicle, but in the Drakensberg it is anything but simple. WWF notes that the Drakensberg grasslands hold more than 2,500 plant species and are home to rare birds including the wattled crane and the bearded vulture. During a four-day bioblitz in the area in February 2021, researchers recorded more than 150 species of flowers, trees and grasses.
The bigger story is water. The new park lies within the Eastern Cape Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area, one of a small number of landscapes that supply a disproportionate share of the country’s fresh water. Healthy grasslands and wetlands act like a sponge: they slow runoff after storms, hold soil in place and release water steadily through the year. The wider Drakensberg grasslands feed the Tugela and the Senqu, which becomes the Orange River, according to WWF. Invasive black wattle is one of the threats here, because it drinks water that would otherwise flow downstream, and clearing it is part of the conservation work.
So when you read that a new park protects “grassland”, read it as: this protects farms, towns and rivers well beyond its own boundaries.
Can you visit Grasslands National Park yet?
Not as a park, no. Neither SANParks nor the government statement mentions visitor facilities, entry points, accommodation or a date when the park might open to the public. Much of the declared area is working private and communal farmland, so please don’t treat it as open country to wander into. When access is announced, it will come from SANParks, and their news page is the place to watch.
Earlier coverage of the project pointed to potential for adventure and cultural tourism in these mountains, which makes sense for the setting. This is high country near the Lesotho border, around the village of Rhodes and the Naude’s Nek pass, where the mountains climb past 2,500 metres. It’s a different kind of trip from a Big Five safari: wide skies, cold winters, birds and wildflowers rather than lions at a waterhole.
Where to go on safari in the Eastern Cape in the meantime
If the news has put the Eastern Cape on your map, the province already has well-established safari options, and they sit far to the south-west of the new park.
Addo Elephant National Park is the obvious starting point. SANParks describes it as the country’s third-largest national park, with the Big Five on land plus southern right whales and great white sharks in its marine section, and it is roughly half an hour’s drive from Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). Private reserves around Addo add the guided game-drive experience many international visitors are after.
Mountain Zebra National Park, near Cradock, is the quieter choice: Karoo plains and the craggy Bankberg range, with Cape mountain zebra, cheetah, buffalo and black rhino. It’s a good fit for travellers who would rather watch one herd properly than tick off a list.
Both suit families travelling with young children, because the Eastern Cape’s main reserves lie outside the malaria areas. Our older piece on child-friendly lodges in South Africa covers the family angle, and if you are weighing seasons, compare a South African safari in winter with Kruger National Park in summer. More guides sit under Safari Planning.
One practical tip to finish: if you’re building an Eastern Cape route this year, base the safari at Addo or Mountain Zebra, and keep an eye on SANParks for Grasslands. The first visitor announcement from that park will be worth acting on early, because new parks rarely stay quiet for long.
