the 10th Anniversary of the Giant�s Castle Declaration for the Establishment of
the Maloti-Drakensberg Tran Frontier Conservation and Development Area and the
Launch of the Maloti-Drakensberg Tourism Route
4 September 2007
Honourable Minister L Ntsinyi representing the government of the Kingdom of
Lesotho,
Honourable MEC M Mthimkhulu,
Honourable High Commissioners of Lesotho and South Africa,
Representatives of the World Bank,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is indeed a great pleasure and honour for me to address you on this
special occasion where we have decided to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the
Giant's Castle Declaration by launching the Maloti-Drakensberg Tourism Route
and the accompanying book, "the Maloti-Drakensberg Experience." Let me take
this opportunity to extend a very warm and hearty welcome to our colleagues
from the Kingdom of Lesotho whose presence here demonstrates the nature of and
the value that we place on our collaboration in this area. I would also like to
recognise the presence of representatives of the World Bank whose financial and
technical support has made the implementation of this project over the last
five years a great success. The presence of the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for
Agriculture and Environmental Affairs , M Mthimkhulu, senior officials from the
Eastern Cape province and the South African National Parks, representatives of
the private sector and our traditional leaders, is also in recognition of the
importance of our collaboration and common vision for the Tran Frontier
Conservation and Development Area (TFCA).
Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, almost 10
years ago today, great minds that came before us, including some of you who are
here today, met at this same venue and made the bold decision to commit their
institutions and governments to the sustainable and collaborative management of
the globally significant biodiversity and cultural heritage of the Maloti and
Drakensberg mountain region through the establishment of the Maloti-Drakensberg
Tran Frontier Conservation and Development Area. Whilst we sit here today to
marvel and celebrate the ingenuity of those great minds, we are ideally giving
ourselves time to take stock of our achievements relative to their vision and
commitments 10 years ago.
Whatever reason and motivation they had then for the establishment of this
TFCA, the same reasons and more are more compelling for us today as human
demands on this bioregion undoubtedly increased phenomenally. Not only is one
of southern Africa's major water factories, for which this area is well-known,
increasingly under threat, the demand for its water is increasing at an
exponential rate.
Not only do we need to double our conservation and sustainable management
efforts in this TFCA for the sake of sustainable supply of water but also
because of the high endemism in terms of biodiversity in this area and knowing
fully well that our grassland bioregions are not very well represented in our
protected area systems in both countries.
The cultural heritage in this TFCA, Honourable Minister, distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen, is second to none. Not only does this area have
the finest prehistoric rock art in the world, it has one of the highest
densities, more than 1000 sites, of rock art sites in the world. The area
exhibits some of the last San rock art paintings in Africa south of the Zambezi
River. Some of the paintings were done as late as the 1920s, providing us with
a lot of meaning and motivation to look after this cultural heritage.
In addition to rock art, the TFCA has very important paleontological sites
including the oldest fossilised Dinosaur eggs in the world, dating back 200
million years ago. This Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and
gentlemen, if well managed and publicised could very easily place this TFCA on
the world map. This area for most of our Basotho people in both countries
defines their origins as it is a key area for some of our late Iron Age
settlements.
This was the heartland of the so called Umfecane or Lifaqane tribal turmoil
which witnessed a lot of movements in and out of the Drakensberg.
For your own information Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies
and gentlemen, this area produced one of the greatest African leaders, King
Moshoeshoe, the founding father of the Basotho nation.
With all this significant natural and cultural heritage, the unparalleled
scenic splendour and the renowned hospitality of people of this area, coupled
with the breathtaking landscape features of the Maloti and the Drakensberg
mountains, it is only befitting that we are gathered here today to launch a
tourism route that has all it takes to make for a worthwhile experience for any
tourist.
Honourable Minister, distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen, let me take
this opportunity to remind you that 2 years ago another set of great minds,
which again includes some of you sitting here today, realised the opportunities
to be presented by the 2010 Soccer World Cup in terms of spreading the benefits
across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and developed a
strategy aimed at "Positioning TFCAs as southern Africa�s premiere
international tourism destination" for 2010 and beyond.
As you all know, this strategy was adopted by 9 SADC countries that are
involved in the 7 TFCAs that have been identified for the first phase of the
strategy. The strategy was also endorsed as a SADC initiative by the SADC
Council of Ministers at their meeting in February 2006. My department has now
established a Unit that is taking the overall responsibility for the
implementation of the strategy.
The vision of this initiative is to market southern Africa's TFCAs as a
single tourism route and destination. The success of this broader tourism route
depends on the success of the individual TFCA tourism routes. We are today
making a commitment to ensure the success of the Maloti-Drakensberg tourism
route as our own contribution to the broader vision of the SADC community. Let
us ensure that 10 years from today our successors will be able to look back
with pride, marvel and celebrate the commitment that we are making today.
In conclusion, Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and
gentlemen let me take this opportunity to thank you all for your support not
only in making today's occasion a success but more importantly for keeping the
vision of the Giant's Castle declaration alive and also ensuring that our two
nations take the lead in realising our vision of regional integration as the
SADC region.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
4 September 2007
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (http://www.deat.gov.za)
