Honourable Deputy Minister R Mabudafhasi at the Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Giant�s Castle Declaration for the Establishment of the Maloti-Drakensberg Tran Frontier Conservation and Development Area and the Launch of the Maloti-Drakensberg Tourism Route

Honourable Minister L Ntsinyi representing the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho,
Honourable MEC M Mthimkhulu,
Honourable High Commissioners of Lesotho and South Africa,
Representatives of the World Bank,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed a great pleasure and honour for me to address you on this special occasion where we have decided to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Giant's Castle Declaration by launching the Maloti-Drakensberg Tourism Route and the accompanying book, "the Maloti-Drakensberg Experience." Let me take this opportunity to extend a very warm and hearty welcome to our colleagues from the Kingdom of Lesotho whose presence here demonstrates the nature of and the value that we place on our collaboration in this area. I would also like to recognise the presence of representatives of the World Bank whose financial and technical support has made the implementation of this project over the last five years a great success. The presence of the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs , M Mthimkhulu, senior officials from the Eastern Cape province and the South African National Parks, representatives of the private sector and our traditional leaders, is also in recognition of the importance of our collaboration and common vision for the Tran Frontier Conservation and Development Area (TFCA).

Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, almost 10 years ago today, great minds that came before us, including some of you who are here today, met at this same venue and made the bold decision to commit their institutions and governments to the sustainable and collaborative management of the globally significant biodiversity and cultural heritage of the Maloti and Drakensberg mountain region through the establishment of the Maloti-Drakensberg Tran Frontier Conservation and Development Area. Whilst we sit here today to marvel and celebrate the ingenuity of those great minds, we are ideally giving ourselves time to take stock of our achievements relative to their vision and commitments 10 years ago.

Whatever reason and motivation they had then for the establishment of this TFCA, the same reasons and more are more compelling for us today as human demands on this bioregion undoubtedly increased phenomenally. Not only is one of southern Africa's major water factories, for which this area is well-known, increasingly under threat, the demand for its water is increasing at an exponential rate.

Not only do we need to double our conservation and sustainable management efforts in this TFCA for the sake of sustainable supply of water but also because of the high endemism in terms of biodiversity in this area and knowing fully well that our grassland bioregions are not very well represented in our protected area systems in both countries.

The cultural heritage in this TFCA, Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, is second to none. Not only does this area have the finest prehistoric rock art in the world, it has one of the highest densities, more than 1000 sites, of rock art sites in the world. The area exhibits some of the last San rock art paintings in Africa south of the Zambezi River. Some of the paintings were done as late as the 1920s, providing us with a lot of meaning and motivation to look after this cultural heritage.

In addition to rock art, the TFCA has very important paleontological sites including the oldest fossilised Dinosaur eggs in the world, dating back 200 million years ago. This Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, if well managed and publicised could very easily place this TFCA on the world map. This area for most of our Basotho people in both countries defines their origins as it is a key area for some of our late Iron Age settlements.

This was the heartland of the so called Umfecane or Lifaqane tribal turmoil which witnessed a lot of movements in and out of the Drakensberg.

For your own information Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, this area produced one of the greatest African leaders, King Moshoeshoe, the founding father of the Basotho nation.

With all this significant natural and cultural heritage, the unparalleled scenic splendour and the renowned hospitality of people of this area, coupled with the breathtaking landscape features of the Maloti and the Drakensberg mountains, it is only befitting that we are gathered here today to launch a tourism route that has all it takes to make for a worthwhile experience for any tourist.

Honourable Minister, distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen, let me take this opportunity to remind you that 2 years ago another set of great minds, which again includes some of you sitting here today, realised the opportunities to be presented by the 2010 Soccer World Cup in terms of spreading the benefits across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and developed a strategy aimed at "Positioning TFCAs as southern Africa�s premiere international tourism destination" for 2010 and beyond.

As you all know, this strategy was adopted by 9 SADC countries that are involved in the 7 TFCAs that have been identified for the first phase of the strategy. The strategy was also endorsed as a SADC initiative by the SADC Council of Ministers at their meeting in February 2006. My department has now established a Unit that is taking the overall responsibility for the implementation of the strategy.

The vision of this initiative is to market southern Africa's TFCAs as a single tourism route and destination. The success of this broader tourism route depends on the success of the individual TFCA tourism routes. We are today making a commitment to ensure the success of the Maloti-Drakensberg tourism route as our own contribution to the broader vision of the SADC community. Let us ensure that 10 years from today our successors will be able to look back with pride, marvel and celebrate the commitment that we are making today.

In conclusion, Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen let me take this opportunity to thank you all for your support not only in making today's occasion a success but more importantly for keeping the vision of the Giant's Castle declaration alive and also ensuring that our two nations take the lead in realising our vision of regional integration as the SADC region.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
4 September 2007