SA 'needs New 7 Wonders boost'

The time has come to reveal Table Mountain's fate in its battle to be named a New7Wonder of Nature and the results will be announced during a free concert at the V&A Waterfront's Amphitheatre on Friday 11 November.

And if Table Mountain was named one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature it would see a surge of tourism, Western Cape tourism MEC Alan Winde said on Monday, "With visitos to our destination increasing by 20 percent."

"This would generate an additional R1.4 billion in revenue every year and support employment opportunities for around 11 000 people. We must show our support for Table Mountain by voting via every means possible every day."

Winde paraglided off Signal Hill on Monday morning in a last effort to garner votes for the mountain. Table Mountain failed to make it onto the campaign's latest top 10 list.

The list comprises the Dead Sea, the Grand Canyon in the USA, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Vietnam's Halong Bay, Jeita Grotto in Lebanon, Jeju Island in South Korea, the Indonesian island of Komodo, Puerto Princesa underground river in the Philippines, Sundarbans delta at the mouth of the Ganges river, and Italy's Mount Vesuvius.

The public is invited to celebrate Table Mountain's success to date and to be the first to hear the results of the final round of the New7Wonders of Nature race. Festivities will kick off at 7pm and run until 10pm. The announcement will be made during that time, followed by an address from Mayor Patricia de Lille.

It has been a nail-biting finish for the Table Mountain official organizing committee following an announcement by the New7Wonders Foundation in Switzerland on Sunday November 6 that Table Mountain was not in the Top 10 list and that the site would need to draw maximum votes in order to wrestle for a top 7 spot. After almost 3 years of campaigning, the voting will come to a close on Friday at1:07pm.

"There are just a few days left to vote for our mountain to be named a New7Wonder, and it's now or never! Every person who has ever gazed upon it, hiked up it or seen the Mother City from its great height should vote for it," said campaign manager Fiona Furey.

Master of Ceremony's Soli Philander will kick off the proceedings, followed by entertainment from Chad Saaimon and the Black Ties, and Celeste Williams and The Rudimentals.

"No matter what the outcome we will celebrate. We can be extremely proud of what we have achieved and how far we have come," said Sabine Lehmann, chairperson of the official organizing committee. "From an initial list of 440 sites we made it into the top 28. That in itself is worth celebrating."

You can cast your vote by visiting www.votefortablemountain.com, or via Mxit for 20c, or SMS "Table" to 34874 at R2 an SMS, or go to www.facebook.com/New7WondersofNature, "Like" the page, click on "Vote Now", select your top 7 wonders and click "Send your vote". If you vote via SMS or Mxit, you can vote as many times as you like.

Join thousands of other tweeters in the build up to the announcement by using #N7Wresults when tweeting.