South Africa was officially bestowed its seventh World Heritage Site at the weekend at the 29th World Heritage Committee Meeting being held in Durban.

The Vredefort Dome, spanning the Free State and the North West Provinces, was inscribed as South Africa's fourth natural heritage site.

The honour is awarded to designated sites that are deemed to be of outstanding universal value.

Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Pallo Jordan, welcomed the inscription. "The awarding of the status is a proud moment for South Africa.

“The next step is to establish management structures, and comply with requirements of the Unesco Convention.

“The Vredefort site is rich in the symbolic representation of our culture and it demonstrates the meeting between scientific and cultural philosophy and practice," he said.

The Vredefort Dome is the oldest and largest meteorite impact site in the world. It was formed an estimated 2-billion years ago when a giant meteorite hit the earth close to where Vredefort is today.

"At Vredefort, opportunities exist to engage in geological research and explore and understand more sensitively the rich culture of the Basotho, Batswana and Khoi-San and the early evidence of human cognitive and artistic endeavour their cultures boast," said Jordan.

"This demonstrates that heritage can be a tool for nation-building and that this tangible site and the intangible aspects raised above should be preserved for posterity; in fact for our survival as a human race.”

The economic and tourism potential of the inscription are also a priority for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

With this in mind, the department has allocated R18-million from its poverty relief programme for tourism and infrastructural development of the Vredefort Dome Site.

These funds will be used, among others, for the eradication of alien invasive vegetation, hiking trails and the construction of a tourism centre.

South Africa's application for the extension of Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein to include Mokapane's Valley and the Taung Skull Fossil Site is also expected to be discussed before the end of the meeting.