22 June 2004

By Lebofsa Masha

Cold weather and a torrential downpour could not prevent Khabisi Mosunkutu - Gauteng's MEC for agriculture and the environment - from digging deep to turn the first sod in the construction of an interpretation complex at the Cradle of Humankind.

The ceremony, held at the Sterkfontein caves on 21 June, marked the start of a massive R163-million project that will teach visitors to the World Heritage Site about the distant history of humankind.

The Cradle of Humankind has a rich fossil record of three million years of human history buried in its soil.

Mosunkutu, addressing the government officials and representatives of the agencies involved in the project, said he was honoured to be among people who were preserving humankind's heritage.

"This journey of discovery, which starts at the very beginning of the development of the human species, is not going to be a boring journey," Mosunkutu said.

Visitors would have the opportunity to look at old bones and experience exciting exhibitions such as the underground lake, he added. The development would also have banqueting facilities and a conference centre.

With a little help from the bulldozer driver, and in the middle of an unseasonable storm, Mosunkutu worked the machine's pedals and dug out the soil where the new interpretation complex will be constructed, about 250 meters from the museum and tearoom.

Michael Worsnip, the Cradle of Humankind's programme manager, said: "This is not just an exciting project for Gauteng, but for the whole planet."

He said the project would also create jobs and promote economic development.

"This was just a dead area," Worsnip said. The new development, however, was expected to bring a million tourists to the site each year.

Rob King - the chairperson of the Furneaux Stewart GAPP consortium, the group that will construct and operate the centre - said: "Professor Philip Tobias [the palaeontologist and professor emeritus of anatomy and human biology at Wits University] often asked what has Africa given to the world. Africa has given humanity to the world."

King said what was now needed was a storyline of academic merit that should be factually correct. This would be provided by scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand and the Northern Flagship Institute - the home of the former Transvaal Museum.

King said the partnership between the consortium, the government and Wits university would turn the Cradle of Humankind into an attractive destination for local and international tourists.

Itumeleng Pooe, the marketing manager of Thebe Tourism, a subsidiary of Thebe Investment, said the Cradle of Humankind should be a major attraction, "because that's where human life started". Thebe is responsible for marketing the site.

"We will have dedicated shuttles from the various cities to this place because 80 percent of the market is local," she said.

The centre is expected to open in September 2005.