Ngwenya Iron Ore Mine - now a failed world heritage site?

摘要

The title above was used without the "now" during my oral presentation at the annual meeting of the "Africa Group of German Earth Scientists" (AdG, June 2015, Goethe-University Frankfurt). Unfortunately, the museum of Ngwenya that housed much of the hard ware and history inventory of the site burned down in the night of 23 to 24 September 2018 to ashes (Swazi Observer, 25 September 2018, p. 16, and Times of Swaziland, 26 September 2018, p. 11). What has caused the fire is not yet known, but it is suspected that burning fire sparks from a wild fire have landed on the Ngwenya Exhibition Centre's picnic area, which was made of wooden planks and subsequently ignited other inflammable items housed inside the centre. Unfortunately, none of the regular guards was at night present there to report the fire to the Eswatini Fire and Emergency Services, who made later the statement that they could have saved the centre, if they were called in time.