Exploiting our National Treasures for Private Profit (PERSPECTIVE)

By Charlene Houston

(HN, December 2, 2011) - In at number seven, Table Mountain was announced one of the“New 7 Wonders of Nature” on 11 November 2011 - but what does this really mean? The iconic Table Mountain in Cape Town. CREDIT: Michael Bociurkiw

The hype South Africans experienced during the campaign is bizarre considering the value and status of this top seven list. The “Vote for Table Mountain” website explains that the competition was about “officially recognising seven of the most beautiful and prolific icons of nature from all over the world.”

The “New 7 Wonders of Nature” is a competition run by a private company, so it’s unclear what  “official” status is conferred onto the competition. The nomination criteria are rather simple with none of the scientific criteria that are usually relevant when applying for world heritage status: “A clearly defined natural site or natural monument that was not created or significantly altered by humans for aesthetic reasons.”

The “New 7 Wonders of Nature” is not even a popularity contest in that the number of cellular text votes per person is unlimited. So becoming one of the top seven cannot automatically be a measure of a site’s popularity. It should actually be regarded simply as a statement of how many votes the location received from those in the online community.  

The New 7 Wonders Foundation ran its first competition (Seven Wonders of the World) in 2001. Many South Africans are surprised to realize that the competition is run by a private organisation that has nothing to do with world heritage status. Indeed, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) disassociated itself from the competition back in 2007. In a press statement the world heritage custodian said:

“There is no comparison between Mr Weber's mediatised campaign and the scientific and educational work resulting from the inscription of sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The list of the "7 New Wonders of the World" will be the result of a private undertaking, reflecting only the opinions of those with access to the internet and not the entire world.”

Nevertheless, the Vote for Table Mountain website confidently states that by being listed:

“Table Mountain will have cemented its iconic, worldwide status. There will also be a major economic benefit - should our mountain win it will generate R1.4 billion annually to tourism and will create 11 000 much needed jobs.”

But the site gives no clarity on how these benefits will be realized for South Africans merely by being part of the top seven in this competition. This, when South Africa’s unemployment rate has increased in 2010 despite having hosted the world’s greatest and most viewed sporting event, the FIFA World Cup. Hopefully, any increase in tourism if that is even possible in the midst of a global recession will at least ensure that we maintain current jobs, which is also a valid consideration.

But how many more “big bang” events do we need to be part of for jobs to be created? Who really benefits from more exposure to the mountain as a tourist destination?

So far, only the company running the competition has reaped material benefits. Voting by text message cost the voter R2.00. For every text message sent (voters could send as many messages as they liked) 50% of the cost went to the service provider, and the other half to the company, which says it puts the money into the New7Wonders Foundation for “memory projects”. The company would also have made profits from the sale of broadcast rights for the announcement of the top seven new wonders.

In all likelihood, an increase in the number of tourists on the mountain is likely to have an adverse effect on its preservation, as it will compromise the Table Mountain National Park’s conservation efforts. 

It is no surprise that the company that runs the cableway is behind the nomination of Table Mountain. The trip via cable car is too expensive for the majority of Cape Town’s people who are further discouraged from enjoying the facility by the lack of public transport to get there. It is generally only the privileged of Cape Town and the tourists who enjoy the scenic cable car ride up the mountain, yet the general public was being urged to vote. 

It would be refreshing to see the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway put some of the profits from that increase in tourism towards an initiative that makes the experience more accessible to the city’s less privileged majority. For a start, there should be different prices for locals and tourists, over and above the company’s current corporate social responsibility driven donations of tickets.   

From time to time, various organisations have issued lists of “The Seven Wonders of the Modern World”, “Seven Natural Wonders of the World” and so on. The very first list was “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.” It is said to have been initiated by the Greeks and was limited to parts of the world that they knew.  

Thus the idea of “New 7 Wonders” is old fashioned and problematic in that it smacks of the colonial discourse of discovery. Perhaps it is no accident that the image of Table Mountain used in the “Vote for Table Mountain” campaign is a throwback to colonial times. It is the way Table Mountain was seen or “discovered” when approaching by sea and became a well-circulated image in the heyday of colonial rule.

These well-circulated images of the discovered Table Mountain, promoted within the discourse of discovery have contributed to a tourist gaze or a particular way of seeing this site. In Cape Town one of they key components of the dominant tourist gaze is the idea of the conquered natural environment. The gaze is still being constructed to appeal to a European audience. Terms such as “discover” and “explore” encourage the tourist to approach a visit to Table Mountain (and Cape Town) with a particular orientation, similar to that of the early colonisers.

To what benefit is all this?

This kind of tourism is too focused on the colonial discourse of discovery and this particular campaign was centred on the idea that more people will come and discover Table Mountain, thereby increasing revenue from tourism in South Africa, or, more specifically from tourism at the cableway, which is run by a private company with limited benefits for the people of Cape Town.

Houston is an activist, storyteller and public history scholar based in Cape Town. This commentary originally appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS)