UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) ‘seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity’ through its World Heritage Site List.

This statement is embodied in an international treaty adopted by UNESCO in 1972 called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage. Currently, there are 878 World Heritage Sites in 145 countries. South Africa has eight of which to be proud — four cultural, three natural and one mixed site.

South Africa’s cultural sites

Robben Island (1999)
Located 11 kilometres offshore from Cape Town in the Western Cape, Robben Island is most famous as the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly two decades. South Africa’s first democratically elected president spent his days here in a tiny five square meter cell — the place where he began his world-renowned autobiography, 'The Long Walk to Freedom'.

The island is now home to the Robben Island Museum where tourists, locals and school groups visit, often by means of the Robben Island Ferry, which departs from the Robben Island Gateway at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.

In addition to being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the island has also been declared a South African National Monument (1996); a National Museum (1996); an Associated Institution of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (1997); and a National Heritage Site (2006). Quite a few achievements for a small island of little more than five square kilometres.

In 1990, the South African government unbanned the ANC and other anti-Apartheid movements and released the political prisoners from Robben Island, the last leaving in May 1991. In 1999 the island ceased to be a jail and the World Heritage Committee (WHC) declared it a World Heritage Site, noting that the island “symbolises the triumph of the human spirit, of freedom, and of democracy over oppression”.

'Cradle of Humankind' (1999)
Located 50km from Johannesburg in Gauteng, with a small extension into the neighbouring North-West, the Cradle of Humankind is some 474km² in size and boasts over 950 fossils, some dating back millions of years. The area is home to a series of limestone caves, such as the well-known Sterkfontein Caves, where the Australopithecus africanus fossil, nicknamed ‘Mrs Ples’, was found in 1947.

This 2.3 million year-old fossil helped to validate the 1924 discovery of a juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull, called the ‘Taung Child’. Other significant excavations have revealed such fossils as the near-complete skeleton ‘Little Foot’ in 1997 dating back between two and three million years, as well as fossil hominid teeth and the evidence of the early use of fire. These and other fossils are housed in the Maropeng Visitors Centre, opened by former president Thabo Mbeki in December 2005.

In 1999, the WHC granted the Cradle World Heritage status and noted that the sites “throw light on the earliest ancestors of humankind. They constitute a vast reserve of scientific information, the potential of which is enormous”.

Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (2003)
Mapungubwe, discovered in 1932, lies at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers in the Mapungubwe National Park, in the Limpopo Province. It comprises a sandstone hill, some 30 metres high, surrounded by cliffs. It is believed to have been South Africa’s very first ‘kingdom’, inhabited by the highly sophisticated Mapungubwean people who traded gold and ivory with Egypt, India and China, between the 13th and 14th centuries.

The name means ‘place of the stone wisdom’ and it has been the site of the discovery of human bones and a multitude of interesting artefacts such as pottery, beads, gold ornaments, crafted ivory and bone, copper and iron. Also found here, in a royal grave in the 1930s, is the ‘Golden Rhino’; a carved wooden rhinoceros covered with thin gold leaf, declared a Cultural Treasure in 1997.

In 2003, the WHC said of the Mapungubwe area, “What survives are the almost untouched remains of the palace sites and also the entire settlement area dependent upon them...presenting an unrivalled picture of the development of social and political structures over some 400 years”.

Today the Mapungubwe Landscape is characterised by giant baobabs, forests and floodplains which provide a home for herds of elephant and buffalo, and the rare Pel’s fishing owl.

Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape (2007)
Situated in the Northern Cape, the Richtersveld comprises some 160 000 hectares of ountainous desert characterised by temperatures in excess of 50°.

The area — seemingly barren and desolate — is actually home to a myriad species, which have adapted to life in this harsh terrain. To the north, the Richtersveld National Park boasts a wide variety of animals including kudu, duiker, mountain zebra and leopard, as well as 650 plant species. It also provides excellent bird-watching opportunities and is popular with overseas tourists and nature-lovers.

One of the most interesting features of the Richtersveld is that it was recently given back to the local Nama people (descendants of the Khoisan) who inhabit the area, under the South African land restitution programme. The local community owns the entire area and, with the help of SA National Parks, is responsible for the Park and the World Heritage Site.

In 2007, the WHC noted, “The extensive communal grazed lands bear testimony to the land management processes which have ensured the protection of the succulent Karoo vegetation,” and “This demonstrates a harmonious interaction between people and nature”.

Read more about the natural and Mixed Sites on page 2...

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