Drakensberg Cableway

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Richprins
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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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Money has changed hands...same old story... O/


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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Lesotho will step up in technology ^Q^ they will get information from SA via cable ^Q^ ^Q^


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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=O: =O:


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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Cable car study tour blasted

January 19 2015 at 03:20pm
By CHRIS NDALISO

Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism has come under fire for a plan to send a delegation on a “jaunt” to four overseas countries to view their cable cars.

The planned trip has not been discussed by the department’s portfolio committee, as is the norm, according to opposition political parties. The department on Sunday confirmed it would undertake an international “study tour” on the proposed building of a cable car in the Drakensberg.

Details including the departure date were yet to be finalised. But the Daily News understands the department will visit Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Australia’s Cairns Skyrail, China’s Huanshan Cableway, Masada Cableway in Israel and Switzerland’s Blatten Cableway.

The trip is in support of the controversial Berg cable car project first mooted in 1994, opposed by some communities in the Drakensberg and environmental activists.

Department spokesman, Bheko Madlala, said the tour was intended to gain a first-hand account of how cableways operated, particularly those in eco-sensitive areas.

“This will give the province a good idea of how to proceed with the project locally and how to balance the economic potential of the project and the issues of environmental preservation.”

Asked for more details, such as the number of people going on the trip and the cost implications, Madlala said: “Logistical issues… are still being finalised.”

He said that after numerous consultations, feasibility studies, and public participations, which came to a close last February, the government had given the project the go-ahead.

A study, made public last July, found it was feasible to build the cable car in the Busingatha site at Mount Amery, in the Drakensberg.

The site had minimal need for road construction, a gondola could be used for access from the existing road, and the terrain was adequate, the study found. The site also had “outstanding” views and was outside any world heritage sites.

DA MPL Ann McDonnell, a member of the Economic Development and Tourism portfolio committee, said the delegation would include individuals from department entities such as Ithala, KZN Trade and Industry, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Tourism KZN, iSimangaliso Wetlands Park Authority, representatives from the feasibility study author, Graham Muller and Associates, and other officials.

“This jaunt is totally unnecessary and completely unjustifiable,” McDonnell said.

“We live in an age of technology – information regarding cableways and cable cars must be available on the internet. The trip is to be funded by the R1.1 million budget set aside for the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project.

“The cost is likely to exceed the budgeted amount.”

Madlala hit back, saying it was everyone’s duty to look at ways of stimulating the province’s tourism sector. “This project will add to the cornucopia of tourism offerings in the province,” he said.

“The MEC firmly believes that all of us, including the DA and those who are opposed to the project, are welcome (at) the table of ideas to discuss how and what we need to do – given the changing nature of the global tourism landscape – to claim a slice of the lucrative global tourism cake.

“That demands of us the maturity to resist the temptation to engage in a daily ritual of issuing uninformed but sensational statements…

“The need to build a globally competitive tourism industry in the province is bigger than the sum total of our narrow political ambitions.”

Blessed Gwala, the IFP’s member of the provincial legislature, also said that information about existing cable cars could be easily sourced from the internet.

Daily News


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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DA KZN: Cable Way ‘global tour’ set to cost KZN taxpayers millions
Posted on January 19, 2015 by Inga Ndibongo
Mark Steele, MPL

DA KZN Alternate Spokesperson on EDTEA

THE Democratic Alliance can today reveal that a ‘global tour’ by KZN government officials – to inspect cable ways around the world – is set to cost taxpayers millions.

The trip, first announced in September 2014 by KZN Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) MEC, Mike Mabuyakhulu, forms part of a fact-finding mission ahead of the proposed construction of KZN’s own cableway in the Drakensburg.

According to a recent parliamentary reply by MEC Mabuyakhulu to questions posed the DA’s Ann McDonnell, the trip will include participants from EDTEA entities – Ithala, Trade and Industry KZN, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Tourism KZN and the iSimangaliso Wetands Park Authority – along with departmental officials and representatives from Graham Muller and Associates, authors of the feasibility study.

Five different cable way sites including Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Australia’s Cairns Skyrail, Huanshan Cableway in China, Masada Cableway in Israel and Blatten Cableway in Switzerland will be visited.

The DA is stunned that MEC Mabuyakhulu is steam-rolling through with such a trip in spite of the many objections the project has raised.

This jaunt is totally unnecessary while the practical need for all five EDTEA entities to be accommodated on such an extravagant trip is completely unjustifiable. We live in an age of technology – information regarding cable ways and cable cars must be available on the internet.

The MEC’s reply also confirms that the trip is to be funded by the R1.1million budget set aside for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and that the department is currently obtaining cost estimates.

Research conducted by the DA shows that the cost of the trip is likely to far outstrip the R1.1million set aside for the EIA, placing this critical process in jeopardy.

If just three individuals from each of the entities mentioned go on the trip, with one person flying business class and the other two economy, staying at least five nights at each destination, the overall estimated average works out at R4.3million.

This does not even take the various exchange rates into account.

KZN is a province with a water and sanitation crisis, a severe backlog of housing and numerous other challenges. The fact that KZN ANC-led executive can even consider such an extravagant and self-serving exercise is yet another example of where its priorities lie.

The DA expects an announcement from MEC Mabuyakhulu that this trip will be cancelled with immediate effect. Should he continue to bulldoze his way through using funds from the EIA budget, we will demand a recalculation of funds so that this process is not compromised.

There can be no possible reason for a multi-million rand trip which involves going up and down mountains.


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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This is the most crazy idea, that I have ever heard of. Even worse than Dr. Mubunda's trip to Canada. Is everybody going mad?? 0- 0-

The cable car in itself was madness so it is difficult to find a word for this non necessary trip. Can nobody stop them? O/


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Richprins
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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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That is how local government operates, Lis...any excuse for a party or trip at the taxpayer's expense is ok! 0*\

And if you complain, you are "narrow-minded"...which eventually translates to being racist! O**



“The need to build a globally competitive tourism industry in the province is bigger than the sum total of our narrow political ambitions.”


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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I call it common sense 0*\


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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Funnily enough the Brat is meant to be going on a school camp to the Drakensberg next month, and one of the things they will be doing is an impact assessment study on the cableway. Costs a lot less than an overseas trip!! O**


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Re: Drakensberg Cableway

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http://traveller24.news24.com/Explore/S ... r-20160322

ExploreSA Holiday Guide
New Drakensberg Cableway hopes to be a 'game changer'
2016-03-22 14:57 - Louzel Lombard


Cape Town - KwaZulu-Natal’s dream of having its own state-of-the-art cableway, showing off the iconic and dramatic Drakensberg mountain range will move an inch closer to being realised when the province hosts an international conference and exhibition on the Drakensberg Cable Car project in April.

The event hopes to investigate ways to make the tourism venture a globally recognized one, and will be attended by leading cable car and tourism authorities from across the world. It will be held at the Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC) from 3-5 April 2016.

The Drakensberg Cableway project has been a controversial one since inception in 2012. After research and various government official 'global research trips', at the end of 2014, it was labelled as being economically unfeasible. Also the nearby Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife condemned it, and the community most affected by it rejected it.

But, the team remain confident that the proposed R570 million Drakensberg cableway will be a 'game changer' for KZN tourism.

“Through the conference, we hope to gain a better understanding of all the issues and that can influence the development of the cable car and the best model to be utilised in development, management and operation of this project, in the context of our own environment,” KZN minister for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Michael Mabuyakhulu says.

Some of the cableway's features include:

- a 7km-long cableway ride

- a 3 300-metre climb up the Drakensberg

- a summit at the UKhahlamba-Drakensberg mountain range

The final decided location of the cableway comes after a study that investigated the possibility of the construction of the cableway at 16 other sites. The study found Busingatha site at Mount Amery, just south of Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg, to be the most suitable spot.

The proposed site is located on land owned by the Ingonyama Trust and is outside of the boundaries of the UKhahlamba-Drakensberg World Heritage Site.

The proposed base station would be located in the rural Mnweni area while the intended summit site is Mount Amery between the Ifidi Pass and the Amphitheatre.

“The benefits of the project will not only be derived from the fact that it would offer another iconic tourism facility in the province, but in that it will catalyse the economy of the Drakensberg and beyond, and create an economic domino effect throughout the province."

Mabuyakhulu says they are already working with the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho to explore what we can do to ensure that this project becomes a game changer.

“To compete in the global tourism market we must be able to take calculated decisions to advance tourism and economic growth, whilst ensuring that only minimal and sustainable impacts on the ecology and environment will occur.

In South Africa, the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway currently sets a high benchmark for responsible and sustainable tourism. Ascending up an officially declared Natural World Wonder, and operating within a World Heritage Site, the cableway continually focuses on improving their carbon footprint on the environment and has been recognized for this mandate repeatedly.

In their latest achievement in their long-term plan to go Carbon Neutral, Table Mountain says it has been reduced water consumption by 5% per visitor since 2014. Currently at 1.66kg per visitor, Cableway’s carbon emissions are made up of electricity, gas, fuel consumption, waste and water.

"This achievement is predominantly due to increased staff awareness," says Cableway’s Marketing Manager Collette van Aswegen. "By educating their green team about the environment, the Cableway gets the water saving message across to visitors."


More info:

http://www.drakensbergcablecar.org.za/

http://traveller24.news24.com/News/Drak ... p-20140908

http://www.iol.co.za/travel/south-afric ... ea-1916330


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