The Honorary Officer movement dates back to about 1987. A group of members of the Friends of Pilansberg Society decided that they wanted to be more active in assisting what was then the Bophuthatswana Parks Board, with various Park activities, in particular ‘looking after’ visitors to Pilansberg National Park. Owing to the nature of the activities we were required to undertake, we were appointed Honorary Officers, which gave us the authority of full-time Park staff. Initially, these duties were mainly ‘policing’ the Park as well as being on hand to answer any questions visitors have. Today the selection of Honorary Officers has become a lot more stringent and the North West Parks &Tourism Board (NWP&TB) and Honorary Officer Association have set minimum requirements for admission. Currently only applications from candidates who have completed and passed The Bushveld Mosaic and Environmental Training Group courses are accepted.  

Honorary Officers receive no form of remuneration from NWP&TB. They purchase their own uniforms and use their own vehicles and fuel. It has been estimated that each Honorary Officer spends in the region of R5500 per year - out of their own pockets - in performing their duties. 

Over the years, our duties have expanded - we now work every weekend in Pilanesberg, Borakalalo National Park, Kgaswane Mountain Reserve and are starting the help at Barberspan. Membership of the Association now totals 124 of which 92 are actively performing duties and an additional 3 are seconded to education.

Duties at Pilanesberg include visitor management, visitor information, important species monitoring and security patrols. Those who pass the arduous firearms training may then act as guards for work parties, and armed escorts for the Bushveld Mosaic course and other environmental groups on interpretive walks and trails in the park.  At Borakalalo and Kgaswane Nature Reserve the same duties are carried out but we also take visitors on guided, interpretive bush trails.

We are expanding our VIS (Very Important Species) monitoring group. Currently we monitor all species including Lion, Elephant, Black and White rhino in Pilanesberg. We are active in Borakalalo, Mafikeng and Botsalano with Rhino monitoring. Shortly we will be heading up a programme to monitor Rhino and Buffalo in Mafikeng and Molemane Eye Reserve (the newest Park in the North West Province). We are also active in Madikwe National Park with plains game counts and aging and sexing species.

All our official firearm practical exercises are conducted in the Madikwe National Park. Honorary Officers also assist with the capture, notching and chip implanting of Rhino in all the Parks we operate in. 

Due to the size of our organisation and the fact that we are directly managed by NWP&TB (in the form of the appropriate Park Warden), we formed the current Honorary Officer Association in January 1999. Whilst maintaining a good relationship with FoPS, we are now an entirely separate organisation funded mainly through members’ subscriptions.

 Some of our activities