Drakensberg Cable Car
www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/kzn-not-selling-itself-1.1319098#.T-AHRpEZdCgBassa said that tourism bodies needed to aggressively market KZN and give international airlines incentives to fly passengers through Durban, by working with hoteliers to offer free nights.
“The authorities feel that if we put a cable car into the Drakensberg mountains, people will come,” he said. “It is not going to happen. You need to get out there and you need to market.”
The government obviously is looking for ways to boost tourism in the province and is trying to compete with Cape Town. The point above is a good one: look after what you have and market it, rather than chase after a potential R60m white elephant.
The Facebook poll stands at 8 for and 40 against the cable car. Remember to cast your vote and spread an awareness.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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- Serious tribe
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At a recent meeting, the wilderness committee, headmen and elders of the AmaNgwane mountain communities of Khokwana, Manzana, and Mabhuleseni, discussed the proposed cableway and their response to it.
They were unanimous in opposition to the cableway. “The cableway will destroy our community and our wilderness (ihlane),” said Mkwazeni Hlongwane, who detailed the various cultural and community activities such as controlled hunting and medicinal plant harvesting that would be adversely affected.
“There has been no consultation with the community; we are not happy about the process,” he said. “One thousand people survive here because of what the mountains give us. The cableway will employ 100, but what about the other 900?”
The full article in The Witness is a worthwhile read.
Why is this not surprising....
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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One has to hope that IFP/ANC rivalries don't distort the picture here.
Generally speaking public consultations when it comes to infrastructure development are a jape of note. The consultations often happen after the decision is made and the finance committed. So the time to beat this off is almost passed, given the deadline for the scoping study.
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We can mention things like:
a) the degree of cloud that enevelops the area every summers day - after lunch you can't see your shoes for the mist.
b) danger of lightning strikes - you don't just hear the stuff, you can smell it. Its a long walk home when the cable way gets struck and I'm not carrying any handbags down the pass should I be there at the time!
c) frequency of strong winds which undermine the safe operation in winter -- nearly every day.
d) contentiously - the lack of safety in the region with cross border smuggling routine (that should scare off the ice-cream and scones brigade).
e) how bleak the escarpment top is in the Mnweni area (few will know - and it is genuinely bleak - much as I love it).
The aim here would be to get at the potential financiers and make them nervous.
Saying things like the area is beautiful and needs to be protected will make the financiers think they are on to something because that stuff sells. Thats exactrly why people would pay to see it. That is what they want.
Note that I'll probably edit out the comments above which point at the tactics once a bulk of people have read this comment.
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Another thing to add is the completely impractical current "plan" of having the lower station at Woodstock Dam and the upper station on the escarpment. Are they really considering rigging 20km of cable-way!? As much as I hated the idea, the Sentinel Cable Car plan was much more feasible and would have had far less impact than the current site being proposed. Is it just a matter of KZN tourism wanting to put it somewhere in KZN and zoning in on the only unprotected land in the Berg?
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- JustinBaker
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