13 May 2021

The annual International Museum Day will be held at Gcwihaba historical site on May 18

The Acting Director at National Museum and Monuments, Mr Stephen Mogotsi said in an interview that the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng will officiate at the occasion.

He said the day will be commemorated under the theme: The future of Museums; Recovered and Re-imagined.

Mr Mogotsi said the theme showed the intention to respond to the current challenges especially faced by museum, how they plan to change in doing their day-to-day business and remain relevant.

He said the theme also aimed at encouraging the implementation of the museum’s mandate as the custodian of the movable and in-movable heritage.

Mr Mogotsi said the movable heritage included cultural materials such as pottery, clothing, historic traditional tools while the in-movable refers to monumental physical features and such places included among others caves and gorges.

He said the move to commemorate the day’s activities at Gcwihaba caves was meant to present more information on the location that could lure in more people to visit the historical and monumental place.

“Gcwihaba is a one of the rich natural sites that have the potential to promote and encourage domestic tourism activities and generate monetary benefit for the communities around the area.

However it appears a number of people knows about the site, hence we chose to give it more exposure,” he said.

Mr Mogotsi further said due to the COVID-19 health restrictions, the commemoration will be held virtual and as such only a manageable crowd from the communities around the Gcwihaba caves will physically attend while others would connect through live streaming.

Meanwhile, Mr Mogotsi said to date, 2 500 heritage sites across the countrywide were known and registered by his department, and the list included archaeological, historical and gorges.

He said the aforementioned heritage sites were declared and protected as national assets and to date only 100 of them have been opened for community use.

He further said the museum was working tirelessly to find ways that would continue to encourage preservation of the sites for future use and to make them contribute to the diversification of the tourism sector. Ends