City Celebrates Woman Rangers

Yesterday, 31 July 2025, marks World Ranger Day and as such, the City is recognising and celebrating all of our rangers. In celebrating Women’s Month in August, the City caught up with three woman rangers about the highlights of their occupation and how they found themselves in this field. These three confident and inspiring women are placed at various City nature reserves across Cape Town, and are working hard to conserve and protect Cape Town’s conservation areas.

‘This World Ranger Day, we wanted to recognise some of our woman rangers to highlight the great work they do in supervising and contributing to the management of their respective nature reserves. We appreciate these nature-loving women whose work in safeguarding the future of our natural environment is no easy task and in many cases, requires hard physical work and engagement with local communities.

‘We currently have over 170 rangers, at the City of which over 50 are female rangers who have a wealth of knowledge and experience in nature conservation. The City provides a viable career for many individuals in nature conservation and is leading South African municipalities in its conservation efforts,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

Meet Khanyisa Ndzwaiba, Reserve Supervisor at the City’s Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserve.

Ndzwaibo started working for the City six years ago and after just two years, this ambitious ranger was promoted to a Senior Field Ranger in September 2021. She has always loved natural spaces and wanted to be a part of conserving these spaces for future generations to enjoy. She resides in Atlantis right on the doorstep of the conservation area she supervises and enjoys educating the community and visitors at the reserve about the City’s biodiversity goals so they can understand the true value in conservation.

‘I love that I can see how I have grown in my job and can honestly say that I try to learn about how to better manage these conservation areas every day. I must admit I do enjoy fighting fires as well to ensure our conservation efforts do not go to waste within the reserve,’ said Ndzwaiba.

Ndzwaiba is a very proud member of a dedicated team and is also encouraged by the various training offerings the City makes available to expand her practical skills and gain knowledge in various areas.

Meet Orepa Mogaki, Visitor Controller at the City’s Helderberg Nature Reserve in Somerset West.

Mogaki is from Strand and joined the City four years ago. She chose this profession because of her passion for wildlife, the ecosystem and the beautiful natural heritage that we have in Cape Town. One of her highlights thus far was attending to a wildfire at the Helderberg Nature Reserve in June 2022 and witnessing how the nature reserve’s staff, various City departments, volunteer organisations and the surrounding communities came together to fight the fire. She said the commitment and unity was beautiful to witness.

‘Playing a part in the plans which bring communities and nature together for the benefit of both has always been important to me. I love that I am based at the beautiful Helderberg Nature Reserve, a popular reserve which is known for its environmental education offerings. I get to contribute to conservation while experiencing the beauty and diversity of these spaces. Some of the challenges we face in our roles are having to work in very unfavourable weather conditions at times, but if a task needs to be done and completed, that’s what needs to happen,’ said Mogaki.

Meet Simonne Sables, Reserve Supervisor at the Symphony Way Conservation Area

Sables resides in the Milnerton area and in 2013 started at the City as a student at the Table Bay Nature Reserve in Table View. One year later she became a Field Ranger at the Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserve. Within five years, Sables was promoted to her current position as Reserve Supervisor at Symphony Way Conservation Area which spans over the Belhar and Delft area.

‘Although there are many happy and memorable moments I’ve had at the City, I’d say the one that really stands out was when I was a student and a Caracal (Rooikat) ended up at the waste water treatment works. We were tasked with capturing it, translocating it and releasing it back into the reserve. I was lucky enough to be the one on the cage who opened the door to release the caracal, it was one of my best moments so far.

‘One of the biggest challenges we experience is with fire-fighting. Sometimes there are multiple fires in various areas. While we do always plan for relief crews, sometimes the circumstances don’t allow for it and you have to work very long shifts but it is definitely worth it!’, said Sables.

The training opportunities available to rangers include really awesome courses to equip them with 4X4 driving and firefighting skills amongst others. Sables said their working days can be pretty unpredictable especially with emergencies such as fires or oil spills.

City support

The City has supported many ambitious and eager woman rangers by funding various training courses and providing financial support to further their education. These opportunities include financial support to complete and obtain their matric certificate or a diploma in nature conservation, as well as their learner’s and driver’s licences.

Various other training opportunities such as in-house biodiversity training, First Aid training; Snake Handling and practical courses to operate light equipment such as chainsaws are also offered to these rangers.

In winter, the rangers focus more on soil erosion control, restoration and invasive species clearing and in the warmer seasons, their work includes the cutting of fire breaks, trail and picnic area maintenance and vegetation monitoring. Collecting and capturing rainfall data, and sending it to the South African Weather Services also forms part of their duties as well as bird counts, nocturnal animal night counts and small to large mammal surveys. They also provide environmental education for visiting schools and groups all year round and work with local communities and experts through the various Protected Area Advisory Committees.