Hello!
I prefer SA in June or July. It's cooler, very limited bugs and cause much of the grassy things are dead, you can see some of the animals better.
But I hate hot, humid, and buggy.
There have been several 'issues' lately in Africa that didn't happen when I started going 10 years ago.
I'd only go to a private reserves, too many folks going to the general Kruger park area with cheap accomodations. Too much 'trouble', people doing stupid things to the animals, etc.
I'm not sure where you live OP. But if you have contacts in SA, the private reserves run ads in papers during 'slow' season. The pricing is relatively low. Sometimes you can find an 'And Beyond' property at a real buy.
As a US citizen, its just not possible for me to take advantage of them.
While I have been to about 60 countries, Those in Africa will always be my favorite. We did some very memorable crazy stuff we still laugh about today. The people are wonderful and were very giving to us. If one is kind to people, people are kind back.
I'm a creative person, working in a creative industry. But I never could dream I would see or experience the things that I have in Africa. I'm back there this October for almost a month, but in the northern half.
My favorite city in the world is Cape Town. And the wine region in that area is amazing. I could go on and on but will end here.