Marumo has been part of Wildlife ACT since 2008, moving from species monitoring into her current role as Community and Coexistence Programme Coordinator at Hlabisa. With a background in Public Relations and guide training, she now works closely with local schools, clubs, and communities to reduce human-wildlife conflict and protect endangered species beyond protected area boundaries.
Marumo was born and raised in Hlabisa, in Zululand, before moving to Durban to study Public Relations through UNISA. During her in-service training placement at Hilltop Camp in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, conversations with field staff and rangers revealed where her real passion lay: not in public relations, but in the outdoors.
She went on to join Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife on an Alien Plant Removal project in the park, before completing Community Guide Training and working as an assistant on an African Wild Dog monitoring project and as a Community Environmental Educator.
While working on a game count team in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, Marumo heard about a monitoring position at another reserve, and joined Wildlife ACT in 2008. In 2011, her role expanded again as she became a rotational monitor across four reserves.
She now serves as Community and Coexistence Programme Coordinator, based at Hlabisa, where she works with interns, clubs, communities, and schools, and helps oversee an annual children’s conservation camp. Her work plays a key role in protecting endangered species when they move beyond protected area boundaries, helping to minimise human-wildlife conflict in the communities that border Wildlife ACT’s project sites.
Outside of work, Marumo enjoys a quiet home life, writing a book and completing online short courses, having grown used to a peaceful, low-key lifestyle after nearly two decades living in the bush.
“The main reason I enjoy my job is that I get to work with endangered species, which I love, and that I get to meet so many different people from around the world!”