letters to the editor/VREDEFORT WORLD HERITAGE - ABOUT LAURELS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

摘要

Frans Waanders, in his recent letter to the Geobulletin Editor (Geobulletin 48/4), is absolutely correct: the Three Musketeers in Potchefstroom are responsible for the geological documentation provided in the uprun to the World Heritage declaration. And as I have done at numerous occasions since July 2005, in private and in public, I congratulate Frans, Marten and Billy on their part in this achievement. Risking the accusation of "post-emigration sour grapes", I must also make clear that the Three Musketeers as well as other political parties have been asked by myself since 2002 to consider all important sites in the Vredefort Dome for inclusion in the UNESCO-declared WH area. To my great concern this appeal has been ignored, and I believe that the Three Musketeers also must take responsibility in this regard. Prime sites of geological importance such as the Leeukop and Salvamento quarries that provide unique opportunities to discuss/exhibit the long-term pre-impact history of the Kaapvaal Craton crust and that represent the best and world-wide exceptional locations to study/demonstrate the catastrophic effect of the impact event in the form of massive occurrences of pseudotachylitic breccia, as well as the archaeological dig at Askoppies, or the petroglyphs-on-granophyre site on farm Daskop, are not included in the core WH area, and thus do not enjoy the same degree of protection as the sites located therein. Already, an initiation school had to be turned away by the owner of Daskop farm, where the kids had been instructed by their elders to try their hands at modern graffiti.