Meet the team at UmPhafa
Amanda Warren
After many years of working in Corporate Finance in the UK Amanda had an opportunity to take her life in a new direction and had a dream of experiencing Africa. Deciding to do volunteer work in Zimbabwe she then managed a Conservation Volunteer Program in South Africa. After acquiring her Professional Guiding qualification, she spent time working in Zululand where she met and assisted her husband Anthony in a reserve management role.
Amanda is excited to be living and working alongside Anthony and the team at UmPhafa and is looking forward to further developing and maintaining this beautiful reserve.
Anthony Smith
Anthony is a local with an international work history and a long career in Health and Hospitality. With a passion for wildlife conservation, an opportunity presented itself to combine the two into a career.
Anthony’s role for the past 10 years has been General Manager in a Big 5 Game Reserve in Zululand, where the emphasis is on Protection, Preservation and Rehabilitation of priority species, whilst educating the visiting guests.
Anthony brings a wealth of diversity in knowledge and experience to the role and looks forward to working alongside his wife Amanda and the UmPhafa Team in keeping the project moving forward in both Education and Conservation.
Rickus Prinsloo
Rickus is the new Intern Project Co-Ordinator at UmPhafa. Thanks to his parents’ love of camping, he grew up and fell in love with the African bush, especially the smaller, less loved animals like snakes, lizards and spiders. This led to him studying Nature Conservation and working with dangerous animals. Early on in his professional career he realised that he loves sharing his passion and knowledge with other people and hopes that this opportunity will lead to more people having an appreciation for misunderstood creatures.
Luhan Roodt
Luhan joined us as a Student Intern Co-Ordinator on Umphafa in 2023 and decided to stay with us once he completed and graduated with his Diploma in Nature Conservation. His passion lies in guiding, and he loves to learn new things every day and share his knowledge with the people around him. One of his biggest goals is to help people understand the importance of conservation of natural areas.
Ethan Garvie
Ethan joins us in 2025 as the new Assistant Intern Co-Ordinator at UmPhafa. He grew up with an adventurous family who loves the outdoors, whether it is spending time on a farm, attending to wildlife, fixing infrastructures, camping or 4×4 competitions. He realised that he had a love for nature and conservation and decided to pursue this as a career. He enjoys the peace that nature brings and has a great interest in ecology and genetics. He is hoping to successfully complete his practical Third Year as a Nature Management Student on UmPhafa in 2025.
UmPhafa Field Rangers
UmPhafa employs a number of members from the local community as Field Rangers. They are trained to understand, identify and react to various security issues. Their role includes patrolling the main reserve area and its vast boundaries. They help to locate snares, intruders and monitor high profile species on a 24 hour basis. The rangers are provided with accommodation on the reserve so are therefore available to react to any incidents immediately. They are the eyes and ears out on the ground and also provide our conservation team with valuable information with regards to animal conditions and movements.