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World-renowned palaeo-anthropologist Professor Phillip Tobias discusses why it would be disastrous to build a casino near Sterkfontein Valley
Since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) general conference adopted a convention on the protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage on November 16 1972, 506 properties worldwide have been inscribed on the World Heritage List (up to the end of 1996). Not one of them is in South Africa, and only 72 are on the whole of the African continent.
So Africa has only about 14% of listed sites, although it forms about 24% of the world’s habitable land surface. Our continent is thus very much under-represented on the World Heritage List.
The reason why South Africa has no World Heritage Sites is simple: although we joined Unesco when it was first set up after World War II, its membership ended soon after the National Party government came to power. When the World Heritage Convention was adopted in 1972, we were not members of Unesco, and thus did not subscribe to the convention.
One of the first, most constructive and valuable steps taken by the new democratic government was to re-join Unesco. Then, on May 28 1997, Parliament approved the ratification of the World Heritage Convention. On October 10 1997, this was accepted by Unesco and our country became a party to the convention just seven months ago. Now at last South Africa could propose sites for listing.
Parliament placed the matter in the hands of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Each of the nine provinces was asked to submit a list of sites. In a short-listing process, the Sterkfontein Valley Site, submitted by Gauteng, was listed as one of the first three South African sites to be proposed. Other sites will be submitted on a tentative list to the World Heritage Centre.
Why did Gauteng choose the Sterkfontein Valley? It includes at least 11 fossil-rich cave sites, over a distance of 15km. No fewer than seven have yielded remains of the human family.
Included are the world’s two richest hominid-bearing caves, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans. Between them, they have yielded nearly 1 000 catalogued hominid specimens, the fossil bones belonging to hundreds of individuals who lived between 3,3- million and one million years ago.
The Sterkfontein Valley Site has one of the greatest concentrations of such cave deposits. The bones and teeth found in them are beautifully preserved, compared with remains found in open lakeshore and riverbank deposits, such as most of those recovered from Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Specimens from open deposits are liable to damage from flash floods and crocodiles, and the bones of a skeleton or even the pieces of a broken skull may be distributed over a considerable distance. The caves of South Africa, on the other hand, protect the contained fossils from such damage and scattering. The result is some outstandingly preserved specimens.
From Sterkfontein cave itself there have come hundreds of exquisite fossils. They include the excellent cranium known as “Mrs Ples” and a splendid specimen found more recently which we call “Mr Ples”. These are remains of the small-headed but upright-walking hominid known as Australopithecus africanus.
In the same layer of the Sterkfontein deposit (Member 4), two partial skeletons have come to light, one of which was found by Robert Broom and John Robinson many years ago, and one recovered in a dig by the late Alun Hughes and myself.
From the oldest, bone-rich layer (Member 2) at Sterkfontein, Ron Clarke of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Palaeo- Anthropology Research Group recovered a suite of foot-bones of close on 3,5-million years old: he and I identified some very unusual features of this apeman foot (“Little Foot”) which led us to conclude that it was intermediate between the feet of chimpanzee and human. The creature could walk upright, but could also spend time in the trees with the aid of a grasping or prehensile foot.
In Member 5, which is just less than two million years old, Hughes and I found the first South African representative of a species which we identified as Homo habilis. It was similar to creatures from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, which the late Louis Leakey and I recognised as belonging to a new species which we christened Homo habilis in 1964.
In the same Sterkfontein layer, Kathy Kuman and Ron Clarke, both of Wits, followed up on earlier finds of stone tools by Bob Brain, John Robinson and Revil Mason, when they showed that there were not one but two stone-age industries there. Some of these are the oldest stone tools found anywhere in the world in a sealed cave deposit and are dated between two million and 1,5- million years.
This cave alone would thoroughly justify recognition as a World Heritage Site; but only a kilometre or two away across the stream is Swartkrans. Here, specimens of another, robust kind of apeman were found by Broom and Robinson after World War II, and subsequently by Brain.
These remains, less than two million years of age, have shown us that not all the early hominid fossils were on the direct line leading to later kinds of humans. Contemporary with them, in the same cave layers, were found remains of an early form of human of the genus Homo. In addition, there are stone and bone tools in Swartkrans and the earliest signs of human control of fire.
Only 2km away from Sterkfontein to the east is Kromdraai where, in 1938, Broom made the first discovery of the robust apeman. Further along the line, Lee Berger has found human remains in the cave of Gladysvale. Northwards from there we find Drimolen, a cave from which Andre Keyser has recovered fine fossils of the robust apeman.
With this concentration of fossil caves in so small an area, it is no wonder the representatives of the World Heritage Centre, who have twice been to inspect the sites, have advised us to apply for World Heritage Site status for the entire area, rather than for one cave at a time.
The sites lie in a slightly curved line. To protect them, it is the policy of Unesco that each group of sites should be surrounded by a buffer zone so that the ecology of the region and of the approaches to the caves may be safeguarded. It is of the utmost importance in World Heritage policy that the surrounding ecology should not be encroached upon by any developments that might mar the beauty, safety and ecology of the zone.
With the entire geological formation of the area riddled with caves and cavities, it is always possible that further fossil- bearing cave deposits may be found within the buffer zone, over and above the 11 caves known today.
For this reason, the University of the Witwatersrand took a strong stand several years ago against the establishment of a piggery on the approaches to one or two of the sites. Unfortunately, the objections were overridden. It remains a matter of serious concern to those who cherish the ecology of the area.
For the same reason, the university took a strong stand against the proposal to set up a major casino and hotel complex in the Kromdraai area. We feared this development, which will lie only about 2km from the nearest fossil site and would certainly be much closer to, or even encroach upon, the buffer zone, would pose a threat to the ecology of the sites and the buffer zone around the line of caves.
The World Heritage Centre is deeply concerned. It is, after all, a convention for the protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. My fear is that the erection of the Rhino Casino project right there would be such a threat that it could well jeopardise South Africa’s chances of success in having its proposal accepted at the World Heritage Centre.
It should be appreciated that there are two hurdles to be overcome in this exercise: the local authority concerned, the landowners on whose properties the fossil sites and buffer zone are situated, the provincial and central government, all have to give their approval first. Then the World Heritage Centre at Unesco House in Paris, on receiving the South African proposal, investigates the matter thoroughly.
There is no rubber-stamping, even though they are aware that Africa, and in particular Southern Africa, is under-represented in the world list. They may approve the proposal, or reject it. They may refer it back to the country for further study and motivation, or they may express their concerns about the security and ecological safety of the sites.
Now the Rhino Casino has been approved by the Gambling Board. I consider this to be a most unfortunate step in an area which is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s most internationally valued scientific treasure-houses.
Even if the centre in Paris approves South Africa’s proposal, there will remain the very real danger of ecological and cultural pollution, produced by the large casino and hotel development, with traffic aggravating the position, on the very edge of an area which we in South Africa are blessed to have in our midst.
We have been told that those concerned with the Rhino Casino project will be careful about ecological considerations. They must consult the University of the Witwatersrand, which is the legal owner of the two most important of the 11 sites, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans. Without these two caves there would be no case for a World Heritage Site there.
The university’s scientists, together with those formerly at the Transvaal Museum, have been involved in excavating these precious sites since 1936. By our efforts we have brought to light a story of human evolution which takes second place to none other, and which brings great numbers of people to visit the caves.
At Sterkfontein, the university, helped by the Rotary Club of Krugersdorp, runs a museum which we set up in 1966, as well as a tearoom and a guide-service. Through the excellent facilities organised by Rotary, approximately 75 000 people are shown through the underground Sterkfontein Caves a year, under carefully controlled conditions.
The university has long been working on plans to upgrade the facilities within the Sterkfontein property. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with the implementation of these plans.