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The ongoing process of putting forward South Africa's outstanding heritage sites for inscription on the World Heritage List has seen a fifth site: Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO's 27TH World Heritage Committee meeting in July 2002. The others, inscribed in 1999, were the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, Robben Island, and the Cradle of Humankind and, Ukhahlamba Drakensberg, in December 2000.

South Africa has made rapid progress since acceding to the World Heritage Convention in 1997. There are other countries that ratified the Convention in the 1970s, yet have no more than one World Heritage Site.

South Africa through the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (the World Heritage Convention Focal Point), submitted the Cape Floristic Region nomination file in January 2003, the nomination was recently (September 2003) evaluated by IUCN.

The Department is currently facilitating the preparation of four new nominations: the Vredefort Dome (a meteorite on the banks of the Vaal River), Makapans Valley (Limpopo, a serial nomination) and Prince Edward and Marion Islands.

The nomination files for the sites will be submitted to UNESCO's World Heritage Centre in line with the Convention Operational Guidelines. Adopted guidelines allow for one nomination file per State Party per calendar year unless a serial nomination is presented.

The revised tentative list of south african world heritage sites (August 2003)

# The sites Nature of the Site Province/Area

1

 Kimberley Mines and Associated Early Industries Cultural Northern Cape
2 The !Xam Khomani Heartland
 Cultural Northern Cape
3 Richtersveld Cultural Landscape Northern Cape
4 Tswaing Crater Cultural Gauteng
5 Taung Skull Cultural North West
6 Makapans Valley Cultural Limpopo
7 Early Homo Sapiens Sites of South Africa*:    
  Klasies River Caves Cultural Eastern Cape
  Wonderwerk Caves
 Cultural
 Northern Cape
  Border Caves & related sites Rose Cottage, Sibudu, Yzerfontein, Hoedjespunt etc. Cultural KwaZulu/Natal province
8 Vredefort Dome Natural Free State
9 Prince Edward & Marion Islands Natural South Atlantic Ocean
10 Alexandria Coastal Dune Field Natural Eastern Cape
11 The Cape Winelands Cultural Landscape Cultural Landscape Western Cape
12 Pilgrim’s Rest Historical Mining Village Site Cultural Mpumalanga
13 Blyde Mariespskop Complex Natural Mpumalanga

Addendum list

1

 Modderpoort Sacred Sites
 Cultural
 Free State
2 Kruger National Park Natural Mpumalanga/Limpopo
3 Barberton Mountains Cradle of Life Natural Mpumalanga
4 West Coast National Park & Associated Cultural Landscape Cultural Landscape Western Cape

* These sites will be submitted as a serial nomination.

Legislation
  • World Heritage Convention Act, 1999
    (This is a PDF file, so you will need AcrobatReader installed on your hard-drive in order to open it. If you don't have this free programme installed, download it now.)
    The Act contains the full text of the "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage" as a schedule (see page 19 of the PDF file).

Documents

Media Statements

Speeches

South Africa's World Heritage Sites

Inscribed:

Nominations being prepared:

  • Cape Floristic Region/Kingdom
  • Mapungubwe
  • Vredefort Dome
  • Prince Edward and Marion Islands

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