The committee issued a statement welcoming the decision by Unesco to declare the Makhonjwa Mountains in Mpumalanga, also known as the Barberton Greenstone Belt, as a World Heritage Site.

“The committee is ecstatic as the Makhonjwa Mountain range in Mpumalanga has met the four criteria set for natural sites, which are that a site contains superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty, has outstanding examples that represent the major stages of earth’s history, is an outstanding example of significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of land and sea communities of plants and animals, and contains the most important natural habitats for conservation of biological diversity,” committee chairperson Lusizo Makhubele-Mashele said.

The area comprises 40% of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, which is one of the world’s oldest geological structures.

“The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains represents the best-preserved succession of volcanic and sedimentary rock dating back 3.6 to 3.25 billion years when the first continents were starting to form on the primitive earth. It features meteor-impact fallback breccias resulting from the impact of meteorites formed just after the Great Bombardment (4.6 to 3.8 billion years ago),” the committee chairperson further explained.

The committee chairperson called on South African Tourism (SAT) to “market all the heritage sites in South Africa” as tourism is one of the “cornerstones of a developing economy and creating jobs for local people”.

“We live in a country that is resplendent in natural beauty be it the mountains, beaches or forests which makes South Africa attractive to overseas tourists and to locals alike,” she urged.

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