Robben Island, the pristine Saint Lucia wetlands on the country’s east coast, the Sterkfontein palaeontological caves near Johannesburg have been declared world heritage sites by the United Nations’ culture and science body, Environment Minister Valli Moosa said on Wednesday night.
Moosa said at a meeting in Johannesburg that he was informed of the decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Robben Island became an international symbol of the fight for human rights when former president Nelson Mandela was jailed there for 18 of his 27 years in apartheid prisons.
The Sterkfontein site is famous for anthropological finds, notably the discovery last year of the skeleton of a 3.5 million-year-old human ancestor.
The three areas are the first in South Africa to be declared world heritage sites. The government hopes that the sites will draw more visitors and create more jobs for South Africa’s tourist industry.
St Lucia’s World Heritage Site status also gives the government’s Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative linking the region with southern Mozambique and Swaziland a boost. The SDI is one of South Africa’s few tourism-based development corridors and has already led to proposals for large trans-frontier parks, tourist roads and joint international marketing.