What is Marloth Park?

Where it is

Marloth Park lies between Malelane and Komatipoort, just north of the N4 on the road to Mozambique. It's in the Nkomazi Local Municipality, in the Ehlanzeni District of Mpumalanga. The Crocodile River forms Kruger's southern boundary, so the park is right across the water, and Crocodile Bridge gate is 14-17 km away by road.

It isn't part of Kruger. For the distance, the gates and what separates the two, see is Marloth Park in Kruger?

How it started

The area opened as a holiday township in 1972 and Marloth Park was formally established in 1977. It's named after Rudolf Marloth (full name Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth, 1855-1931), a German-born pharmacist, chemist and botanist who settled in Cape Town in 1883 and wrote the six-volume Flora of South Africa. The mountain aloe, Aloe marlothii, also carries his name. It grows in the Lowveld and appears on the park's emblem.

Much of the land was left as natural bush, with no fences inside the township except around Lionspruit, which is why animals still walk between the houses.

How it works

Marloth Park is a town and a conservation area at the same time. It's legally declared a conservation area, and its gazetted by-laws cover things most towns never think about: no pets, no high fences or walls around stands, no collecting firewood from the veld, and only antelope pellets and wild bird seed for the animals. The rules page lists the ones that matter to guests.

The Nkomazi Local Municipality runs the town, including its rangers and the by-laws. In November 2024 the High Court in Mbombela ordered the municipality to manage the number of animals in Marloth, after drought and overgrazing left many of them starving. In October 2025 more than 1,000 animals were moved out, some to Lionspruit and others to reserves elsewhere.

Volunteers do a lot of the conservation work. Volunteer honorary rangers, all property owners, give their time under the municipality's conservation department: clearing alien plants, restoring overgrazed veld, counting animals and tracking lions that come in from Kruger. Marloth Park also has a property owners' association and a ratepayers' association.

Lionspruit

Lionspruit is a fenced game reserve of about 1,500 ha on the southern side of Marloth Park, along the N4. Lion and buffalo are kept inside it, away from the houses. You can drive through it in your own car, though some tracks need high clearance or a 4x4. See Lionspruit for visiting.

The animals

Outside Lionspruit you'll see giraffe, kudu, zebra, blue wildebeest, impala, nyala, bushbuck, duiker, warthog, mongoose, baboons and vervet monkeys, all moving freely between the houses. There are no elephants in Marloth itself, but you can often see them across the river in Kruger. Lions sometimes cross from Kruger too. The wildlife guide covers what you'll see and how to behave around it.

Who lives here

The 2011 census counted about 1,000 residents, and many more houses have been built since then. The stands are large (vacant ones are mostly 1,900-2,200 m²), and many hold holiday homes that are let to guests. Others belong to people who live here all year. In 2023 nearly a third of owners who lived here were retirees. Afrikaans, Swazi and English were the most common home languages in 2011.

What Marloth Park suits

It suits people who want a self-catering house in the bush, animals at the stoep and Kruger a short drive away. It suits you less if you want a lodge with meals and guided drives included, or if you're looking for nightlife. Shops in Marloth are small, and the bigger supermarkets, banks and pharmacies are in Komatipoort and Malelane.

If you're coming for the first time, read your first visit before you arrive.