South Africa General

Last week The Monitoring Project broke the news that six sites have been removed from South Africa’s tentative world heritage list. In follow up we spoke to a number of people involved in the preparation of tentative lists and site nominations regarding the changes and what they mean for site conservation. We also received feedback from a variety of stakeholders working on site nominations at a local level. We provide a summary of responses received.  [Originally published 1 August 2015]

Geographic distribution of sites

Need for a national review

According to Albi Modise, spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Affairs, the changes were not out of the ordinary as state parties conduct reviews periodically in line with both UNESCO and country-specific guidelines. According to UNESCO, states need to review these lists every five to ten years as a means of reaffirming which sites they intend to nominate in the short to medium term. A comprehensive national review was therefore required as some listings dated as far back as 2004 (as in the case of Kimberley and Pilgrim’s Rest).  

As Modise confirms:

“The Department in the last two years embarked on [a] process to review the Tentative List. This process included most stakeholders and a call was also made through National Papers for South Africans to comment and nominate new sites...

In what has come as a complete shock to many in the local heritage community, six local sites have quietly been removed from the country’s tentative World Heritage Site list. Jacques Stoltz from the Heritage Monitoring Project investigates. [Originally published 24 July 2015]

The sites in question are: 

• the legendary “copper mountains” of Namaqualand that obsessed and often eluded early Dutch explorers (while inspiring one of South Africa’s greatest botanical works of art, the “Codex Witsenii”, c. 1692), 
• Africa’s first gold industrial plant and arguably the best preserved Central Reduction Works in the world, 
• early industrial scale diamond mining operations (which indelibly altered much of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa as a result of a voracious labour system), 
• 18th and 19th century sites associated with Abbé Nicolas Louis de La Caille’s measurements of the Arc of Meridian at the Cape, 
• pristine coastal dunefields,
• and an island group described as “one of the most important and well-conserved examples of sub-Antarctic islands…”.

According to UNESCO “A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties situated on its territory which each State Party considers suitable for inscription on the World Heritage List. States Parties should therefore include… the names of those properties which they consider to be cultural and/or natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value and which they intend to nominate during the following years” (our emphasis). Without inclusion on the tentative list, a site cannot be nominated for inscription on the world heritage list. 

• The sites that have been removed are:
• Pilgrim's Rest Reduction Works Industrial Heritage Site (added in...

[Originally published August 2015] Last week Roger Fisher of Artefacts fame (and so much more) got in touch to ask if the small memorial plaque in the Standard Bank, Commissioner St, Johannesburg, for Standard Bank employees killed during the First World War still existed. Letitia Myburgh, Head of the Standard Bank Heritage Centre confirmed that it still did and sent through some details. The email conversation inspired Kathy Munro to write a fascinating piece on the lesser known memorials located in corporate and institutional offices.

In gathering information about South African war memorials, one is reminded that many men from the mines, companies, banks and institutions enlisted in the military and volunteered for services to fight in both World Wars as patriotic South Africans. The South African record of service was impressive. Often the names of men who were killed or died on active service were commemorated in plaques prominently positioned in foyers of corporate head offices. Sometimes Rolls of Honour were inscribed in a special commemorative volume or even published in a book  (e.g. see Barclays Bank: "Bank in Battledress"). Commemorative plaques offered a dual memorial, acknowledging that the person had been an employee or colleague of a specific firm and offering the comfort to families of a Memorial honour. The enormity of loss and sacrifice in war meant that memorialization was a way of assuaging grief and triumphing over the finality of death.  

Standard Bank's archivist and Heritage Head Letitia Myburgh, has kindly sent us some information and photographs of their war memorials. These days the memorials have slipped into the category of heritage survivals...

The question above is one that has been asked and answered many times over the years. We are repeating it now as we feel the South African Heritage community needs to continuously push the simple idea that we can help the country to achieve its development goals. This idea is expressed throughout the City of Johannesburg's Heritage Policy. Below are a few excerpts from this policy:

Heritage Tourism

Cultural tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry worldwide, offering a valuable source of income and employment. For urban conservation, the value of tourism is both financial and as an impetus for awakening interest and attracting support. Tourism, managed with clear objectives, is a source of finance, both in the promotion of historic places and in encouraging and enabling conservation work.

The re-use of heritage buildings for tourist functions can ensure that historic structures are restored and given a living function. Heritage tourism should thus be welcomed as a means of enabling appreciation of heritage and its safeguarding and continuity for future generations. Heritage resources could however face the danger of being permanently lost or ruined if tourism is not managed sensitively. International experience shows that irreversible damage can be caused to historic fabric through the capitalisation of heritage for quick profits, heavy foot-traffic through sensitive areas, and hasty or insensitive restoration schemes. While reasonable accommodation should be made for the needs of visitors, the dignity of historic places must be upheld against interventions that may compromise or trivialise the significance of...