MEDIA RELEASE
All Media
5 February 2008
Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla will launch the Heritage,
Greening Mpumalanga and Tourism Flagship Programme in Botshabelo
Heritage Site on 28 February 2008.
The launch of the flagship programme is aimed at promoting
sustainable livelihood, enhancing heritage and tourism economy,
improving community understanding and ownership of the flagship
programme and inculcating the culture of environment
consciousness.
The Theme for the launch of the Heritage, Greening Mpumalanga
and Tourism Flagship Programme is:
“Greening Today, Proud
Heritage and Tourism Tomorrow”.
The provincial government has lined up a number of activities
for the launch and they include planting of thousand trees in
public places (indigenous), handing-over of 3000 hand held
national flags, presentation
of national flags to all public institutions, distribution of
tourism information promotional material, presentations of
Mpumalanga History and Heritage Books, media tour around the
heritage site and visits to Batlagae Primary and Mkhulu
Secondary schools to establish food and flower gardens.
The
provincial government has also organized a two day symposium in
Botshabelo Heritage Site to rediscover the many strands of
history and heritage which became entwined in the area. The
symposium will commence after the launch of the Flagship
Programme on 28 February 2008 and will provide a forum to debate
how Botshabelo can be recognized as a rich historic site and how
the history of the area could be used to positively transform
Botshabelo was the country’s biggest and most famous Mission
station in the former
It loomed large in decisive 19th century
confrontations such as the war between ZAR and the
However Botshabelo was targeted for destruction by the apartheid
regime after 1948 as the regime was determined to stamp out
independent thought and to eradicated African settlements in
white areas and African residents were removed from the area in
1972.
Botshabelo’s rich history is not well known or appreciated
outside specialist circles and it has attracted visitors mainly
who are day trippers from Middelburg who are drawn by the site’s
architectural and naturally beauty but have had little grasp of
the moving narratives which have been framed by the site. Few
travelers and tourists do not know of the site’s significance
and there is little to show for the site’s extraordinary people
and epic events which characterized its history. The symposium
will seek to address these challenges and help to put Botshabelo
on the map so that people can know about the rich history of
this area.
Government has helped to restore the dignity of the Botshabelo
people who were forcefully removed from their land in 1972 and
they were returned their land in 2003 and plans are afoot to
unlock the tourist potential of the site. There has never been a
systematic and public discussion of why Botshabelo is a vital
part of the history and heritage of
The Symposium will commence on 28 February 2008 with a site
visit to Botshabelo which will be followed by discussions and
debates on the nature, meaning and future of Botshabelo the
following day.
The Botshabelo Symposium is the second to be held in the
province after the Mpumalanga Lakes District Symposium was held
last year. The Premier of Mpumalanga, Thabang Makwetla launched
a heritage project in 2004 which focused on the extraordinary
rich resources of history and heritage in the province and
symposiums were contentious questions about the heritage of the
province are debated, were identified as a vehicle that could
heighten the interests of Mpumalanga’s possibilities in both
popular and specialist circles.
Date: 28 February 2008
Venue: Botshabelo Heritage Site
For More Information Contact: Sammy Mpatlanyane
(013) 766 5014
082 923 0550