South African Tentative List submitted to UNESCO for consideration

South Africa’s Tentative Listing updating and revision process was last undertaken in 2015.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has published a revised South African Tentative List for consideration and inscription on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.  

South Africa’s Tentative Listing updating and revision process was last undertaken in 2015.

Since then, the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains and Khomani Cultural Landscape were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017 and 2018, respectively. 

The second revision of sites on the Tentative List was undertaken in 2021/22 financial year with the assistance of the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF), the department said on Wednesday.

During the consultations that included the South African World Heritage Convention Committee (SAWHCC), the Departments of Sport, Arts and Culture, and International Relations and Cooperation, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), African Heritage experts from Zambia and Botswana, and UNESCO Advisory Bodies, three new proposals and five existing sites were considered.

The three new proposals received include Bushman’s Kloof Rock Painting Landscape in the Western Cape (Cultural site), Phoenix Settlement in KwaZulu-Natal (Cultural site) and Rhodes Building in the Eastern Cape (Cultural site).

Other proposals received were for the sites that are already on the Tentative List.

“Following consideration of all supporting information on the potential of these sites to be considered of outstanding universal value, only two of the seven were accepted for inclusion on the tentative list.

"The Human Rights Liberation and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites and The Emergence of Modern Humans: The Pleistocene occupation sites of South Africa have been retained on the South African Tentative list and submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for consideration," the department said.

“The submission of the Tentative List to UNESCO is the start of the process that will result in a final decision by the World Heritage Committee at its next meetings,” the department said.

(With Inputs from South African Government Press Release)