While the United Nations top tourism body predicts that tourists visiting Africa will triple by 2030, our very own municipality is turning a blind eye to the destruction of vast numbers of Anglo-Boer War sites.
These are not being destroyed by vandals, but by contractors building multi-million-rand houses for Ladysmith’s rich on Reservoir Hill. As the UN body is holding its 20th general assembly in the resort area at Victoria Falls on the Zambia and Zimbabwe border, council is allowing contractors to plunder our town’s historical and tourism resources. The UN World Tourism Organisation says that current tourist arrivals on the continent stands at 52 million per year, far below its true potential.
Local tour guide Vince Horne is flabbergasted by council’s inability to protect the town’s heritage and allow the destruction of sites that could generate millions of rands in tourism if developed properly.
The destruction of gun emplacement, sangars and walls of fortifications on the hill was addressed in a meeting with Amafa in 2011 when council first started developing the sites. In a written agreement, council indicated that they would protect the existing structures; something they have since failed to do.
Amafa was established as a statutory body in terms of the KZN Heritage Act of 1997, replaced by the KZN Heritage Act of 2008, to look after historical sites. Their permission is required to make changes to any building older than 60 years old. Vince Horne has laid charges against the contractor for destroying at least two sites and dumping tons of rubble on top of others. – looklocal.co.za Ladysmith