'Big Five' safari destination of South Africa

Once emptied of wildlife, South Africa's Babanango Game Reserve is now a thriving sanctuary for the Big Five, thanks to a groundbreaking rewilding initiative led by Zulu communities and international conservation partners.

At daybreak, sunlight spills through the fever trees and umbrella thorns lining the White Umfolozi River Valley, casting a warm orange glow over the grasslands, now alive with returning wildlife. In an open-sided safari vehicle, field guide Eduan Balt scans the dusty trails, "reading the bush newspaper"—deciphering fresh tracks that hint at the presence of apex predators.

As Balt navigates a portion of the reserve’s 600 kilometers of newly built roads, he passes bomas—holding pens for quarantined buffalo—and a pond where hippos yawn in the cool morning air. The scent of wild anise drifts through the vehicle just as a lioness appears, dashing across the sunlit savannah toward a fallen tree. There, her three playful cubs emerge, bouncing through the grass.

These cubs are the first lions born in this region of KwaZulu-Natal in at least 150 years. Native species like lions had long vanished following the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, when British colonizers seized control and transformed the landscape into farmland. Though large portions of the land were returned to Zulu communities after apartheid, decades of cattle grazing and poaching left the area nearly barren of wildlife.

That began to change in 2018, when a visionary alliance of philanthropic investors, local NGOs, and three Zulu community trusts came together to launch one of South Africa’s most ambitious rewilding efforts in over a decade. The result is the 20,000-hectare Babanango Game Reserve, where nearly 4,000 medium- and large-sized animals have been reintroduced since game translocation and land restoration efforts took off five years ago. With natural births on the rise, the reserve is now home to around 5,000 wild animals, once again roaming a landscape they had been absent from for more than a century.

German philanthropists Barbara and Hellmuth Weisser have invested nearly 1 billion rand (£42.5 million) to reintroduce wildlife into Babanango Game Reserve and fund the tourism infrastructure that will eventually sustain its operations. “I don’t know of anyone else doing something quite like this,” says Hellmuth over dinner at Zulu Rock Lodge, one of four safari lodges now established within the reserve.

At 77, Hellmuth is a retired energy executive and avid photographer who has been visiting southern Africa since the 1980s. In retirement, he and Barbara set out to find a conservation project that could both restore biodiversity and uplift local communities. “The problem for us is that there was no supermarket for finding projects,” he explains.

Babanango, located south of Kruger National Park in a less-developed region of South Africa closer to Durban than Johannesburg, had never been a traditional safari destination. It caught Hellmuth’s attention after the NGO Conservation Outcomes highlighted an opportunity with the Emcakwini Community Trust, which was seeking a partner to lease its underutilized lands.

Hellmuth visited Babanango in 2017 and was captivated by its dramatic terrain—rugged hills strewn with boulders plunging 700 meters from the vantage point at Zulu Rock. “We didn’t want to buy into a project that had been mismanaged,” he says. “When we got here, we found a landscape that was extremely interesting.”

In 2018, the Weissers signed a lease agreement with the Emcakwini Community Trust. Two neighboring trusts—Esibongweni and Kwa Ngono—joined the project in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Today, roughly three-quarters of the reserve is leased from these three trusts. In addition to earning rental income and holding shared ownership of the wildlife, the communities are set to receive 25% of the reserve’s profits once it becomes financially self-sustaining.

Babanango became a Big Five game reserve in record time—but the journey was far from smooth. One of the first hurdles was the removal of 2,600 cows, 300 goats, and 35 donkeys that the community trusts had agreed to relocate. In reality, it took more than three years to clear the land. Only in 2022, once the livestock was finally gone, could the park complete its 81km perimeter fence—although much of the original fencing was repeatedly damaged by ranchers and poachers. It wasn’t until late 2022 that the majority of the reintroduced wildlife could finally arrive.

Plan Your Visit to Babanango Game Reserve

When to Go:
There’s no bad time to visit. Summers (September to April) bring hot, humid weather, while winters (May to August) are dry and chilly—ideal for game viewing.

Getting There:
The reserve is about a three-hour drive from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport and six hours by car from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport.

Where to Stay:
Babanango offers four lodging options to suit every style—from the back-to-nature experience at Matatane Camp to the high-end luxury of Madwaleni River Lodge. Booking directly often comes with exclusive packages and rates.

What to Do:
In addition to daily safari drives, guests can enjoy guided bush walks, take part in wildlife monitoring activities, or explore the region’s rich history on battlefield tours.

“It was very important, becoming a nature reserve, that we reintroduce species that were native to this land,” explains Chris Galliers, conservation manager at Conservation Outcomes, the NGO that advised on Babanango’s transformation. “Several species had been completely wiped out, while others—like kudu, bushbucks, and warthogs—were hanging on in such low numbers that we needed to bolster their populations for genetic diversity.”

A few elusive leopards still roamed the hills, but the rest of the Big Five—rhinos, buffalo, and lions—had to be brought back between May 2022 and March 2023. Elephants, the final piece of the puzzle, arrived in June 2023. “That was a major milestone,” says Galliers. “It showed that every step required to reach that point had been done right.”

Each animal brought into Babanango spends several months in bomas—quarantine enclosures—before being released. This careful staging helps screen for diseases like foot-and-mouth and gives the animals time to adapt. Most are sourced from similar ecosystems to ensure a smooth transition. The park also employs strict monitoring to maintain a healthy predator-prey balance, and its anti-poaching efforts include dehorning rhinos—a controversial but effective method to reduce poaching threats. I catch sight of one of these dehorned rhinos on my third day, standing beneath a grove of candelabra trees.

Galliers is the first to acknowledge the cultural and historical disruption the project represents. “For most of the past 200 years, people here have worked to drive these animals away, because of the dangers they posed,” he says. “Now, those animals are back on their doorsteps. That’s a lot to process.”

On my fourth day, I travel beyond the reserve’s fences to the village of Denny Dalton. There, I meet Thina Nyathi, the manager of the African Habitat Conservancy Foundation (AHC), a registered nonprofit that leads the community development work tied to Babanango.

Nyathi, a native Zulu speaker and KwaZulu-Natal local, shows me one of 17 solar-powered boreholes AHC has installed to bring clean running water to surrounding villages. She also points out how removing invasive species—like the water-thirsty black wattle—is helping restore the region’s hydrology. “Some of the streams that had long stopped flowing are now running again,” she says.

AHC supports communities within a 10km radius of the reserve’s perimeter, offering everything from conservation education and agricultural assistance to vocational training. Local artisans receive guidance in crafts like Zulu beadwork and ceramics, which are sold at Babanango’s lodges. “It’s about teaching people to fish, not just giving them the fish,” Nyathi explains. “When we work together, we understand their challenges and support them in becoming self-reliant.”

Today, about 75% of Babanango’s staff come from neighboring communities—many in their first salaried jobs. Dudu Ngcobo, part of the park’s ecological restoration team, has used her income to send both of her daughters to university. To Nyathi, it’s a clear example of how conservation jobs can create generational change.

Short-term hires for land rehabilitation and other projects help foster local engagement and build a shared vision of what the reserve can become. The goal is for Babanango to serve as a model for conservation on community-owned land. “If it’s done right,” says Nyathi, “we can create a lasting benefit—not just for the environment, but for the people who live alongside it.”