May 15th, 2012
KwaZulu-Natal's uKhahlamba Drakensberg World Heritage Park may be getting a cable car that would quite likely shift Table Mountain's out of the limelight.
IOL reports that Mike Mabuyakhulu, KZN's Economic Development and Tourism MEC, announced at the tourism Indaba in Durban at the weekend that a detailed feasibility study on the proposed Drakensberg Cable Car was about to get under way.
Details and exact costs are not clear as yet, but according to Mabuyakhulu''s spokesperson, Bheko Madlalahe the preferred sites are in the Mnweni Valley next to the Royal Natal National Park section of the World Heritage Site, with the base station near Woodstock Dam. The summit station would be in Lesotho, at a height almost three times that of Table Mountain, and the cable length would be 3km.
While the plan is set to be something of a tourism ‘game changer,' the fact that it will be located next to a World Heritage Site is sure to draw criticism from environmental groups opposed to the commercialisation of a wilderness environment.
