Mother-City as Cape Town is known boasts the Cable Mountain which is one of its draw cards and popular with locals and internationals alike!
Now, the Aerial Cableway a multimillion project started two year’s ago was finally revealed to the public by the national Minister of Tourism Marthinus Van Schalkwyk at Harties, in Haartebeespoort, North West yesterday.
Known for pristine tourist attractions, the Haartebeespoort region has added another gem which could change the mindset of visitors towards NW and also strive to market and promote the sleepy province.
Delivering his key note address, Van Schalkwyk says the opening of the cable way would help in improving the image of North West and job creation.
“The Haartebeespoortdam tourism industry, however small, has shown their muster and commitment to this call from Government, to work in partnerships.
An industry which continuously creates jobs and attracts foreign direct spend plays its part in building a robust, thriving and prosperous nation,” he says.
“Domestic tourism contributes close to R20b towards the GDP of the country, and having said that this should create jobs, skills and training which our people are in need of. Such prosperous ventures would help in reducing the unemployment rate, particularly in the region of Madibeng Municipality and other adjacent areas.”
The R45million Aerial Cableway is the brainchild of Craig Saunders, Director at Zargodox, who pointed out that the cableway had operated for the past 32 years but had to shut down due to poor management by previous owners.
“After acquiring it with large investments, we decided with partners that this could change the face of tourism in this region and thus far we’ve experienced a huge response and bookings from all over.
We’re happy with decision taken although risky but with the Government and other sectors buy-in we will run this operation successfully,” says Saunders.
On skills transfer, he said although they had to use international expertise to fulfill this dream, their local staff have acquired skills from them to operate and maintain the cables, restaurants (which is at the top of the mountain) amongst others, superbly well, he said.
The modern Swiss Cable cars carry six passengers each and the panoramic 360 degrees vista of Magalies unleashes the Joburg and Pretoria views.
Poppy Magongwa, Madibeng Executive Mayor, said now that the project is up and running they will engage with other partners to toil with the idea to establish a hotel in the area, since it does not have one.
“Firstly, as the Municipality we’re happy that the dream of having one of major attractions such as the Aerial Cableway in this region has come to fruition.
Secondly, our people have been given jobs and this means we’re meeting our mandate which is to align ourselves with organizations which are ready to contribute to job creations and sustain them as well.
As of today, I will be meeting with the minister and other stakeholders to work around the idea of possibly creating a hotel in this area and other projects which would benefit our people, “says Magongwa.
Asked whether she will be visiting CT anytime soon, she said now that we have our ‘own’ cableway tourists will be coming this direction.
Director General at National Tourism Kingsley Mathebula said, with Tourism Month taking place in September, this project should be hailed as one of ‘finer moments’ in contributing to the growth of domestic tourism in the country and in the NW Province.
“We are not competing with CT as others have punted but our dream is to leverage on the tourists market-share,” noted Saunders.
It costs R120 per person and open 7 days a week.
For more information visit:www.hartiescableway.co.za
