Drakensberg | Monday
THE KwaZulu-Natal Heritage Council has laid a charge against the Sani Pass Hotel in the southern Drakensberg, relating to a trail of dots of blue paint, which ends at a gallery of San (Bushman) rock art.
The charge was laid at the Himeville police station by Annie van de Venter, Head of Archaeology with Amafa-Heritage KZN.
The hotel has been warned not to attempt to remove the paint as this could cause more damage. It will have to be removed by experts.
The paint trail leads from the Sani Pass Hotel to the iKhanti rock art shelter, about two and a half hours’ climb from the hotel, which is one of the most significant rock art sites in the Drakensberg.
The last blue dot in the trail is placed about 20 centimetres from a painted frieze depicting humans and animals.
”We’ve been in communication with the hotel for several years now about this paint trail,” Barry Marshall, Director of Amafa/Heritage KZN, said.
”We had hoped to settle the thing amicably. Then we recently had complaints from members of the public that the blue dots have been repainted. A member of our staff visited the site and, sure enough, they have been touched up. We haven’t been left with any alternative to pressing a charge.”
He said the KwaZulu-Natal Heritage Act of 1997 gave the Heritage Council the responsibility for protecting rock art sites. One of the protections, which Amafa-Heritage KZN intended implementing, was that visitors should not be sent to sites unaccompanied by trained guides. – Sapa