Bid to preserve historic San rock artwork in Drakensberg

The African Conservation Trust (Act) has partnered with the Drakensberg Mountains local government, to preserve rock art created by the San, who were early hunter-gatherers.

The Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site holds the greatest concentration of rock art images in the province.

Considered a world heritage treasure by the provincial heritage resources authority, KwaZulu-Natal Amafa and Research Institute, the images are significant for the use of a shaded polychrome technique, advanced skills like foreshortening, and the fine details in their wild animal and human depictions.

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Many sites fall outside of the park’s formal protection, within traditional authority areas, making the surrounding communities critical to its preservation.

Act worked with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), through the social employment fund (Sef), to employ custodians.

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Sef was a mass employment programme, part of the presidential employment stimulus, with projects for the common good.

Act, an environmental organisation with heritage conservation experience, relied on established networks within the amaZizi and amaNgwane traditional authority areas, to successfully implement the rock art monitoring project.

The KZN Amafa and Research Institute provided custodian training in the required methodology.

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According to Carl Grossmann, the chairperson of Act, 130 rock art sites were identified and scheduled for monitoring.

Custodians complete an assessment, recording the site’s state and any required interventions. Grass growing into the shelter, plants damaging the rock face in the wind, and graffiti are noted, and reported to Amafa.
Khumbulani Ndaba, amaNgwane site co-ordinator, said:

This project plays an important role in creating job opportunities, as it’s not easy to find a job in South Africa. In the community, 227 people are working, with nine in the rock art sites, where the San people did art in the caves. We’ve got 110 local sites.
A second Sef project is the soil erosion rehabilitation project.

“Extensive soil erosion dongas exist in the Drakensberg, a key watershed and catchment area for KZN and Gauteng. Work is being done to lower silt levels in rivers and dams,” said Grossmann.

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Positive results were eagerly anticipated by residents.

Ndaba said:

We hope for funds to continue fixing the dongas. In Mnweni, when there is too much rain in the high hills, it washes down the richest soil and it’s going straight into the Woodstock Dam.
Grossmann noted pleasing innovations.

“The teams had prior training in creating anti-erosion barriers and are re-employed by Sef to continue that work. There is some social innovation due to another project which removes alien vegetation. The black wattle is then used to build donga barriers, with the smaller branches and bushes laid in the gullies to slow the water runoff.”