The Oudtshoorn municipality and provincial government have managed to turn around the fortunes of the embattled Cango Caves, which were on the brink of closure almost three years ago.
At a media briefing yesterday, Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said that this year the caves made a net profit of R1.27 million and had increased visitor numbers substantially.
Located 29km from Oudtshoorn, at the head of the picturesque Cango Valley, the Cango Caves have fine dripstone caverns, with vast halls and towering formations.
They have been at the forefront of tourism in South Africa since the end of the 18th century.
A report tabled by the Oudtshoorn Municipality stated that last year the caves received a record number of visitors - 270000 people.
In the years before the intervention, the caves were seeing fewer than 150000 visitors per year, and the numbers had been dropping, Bredell said.
The caves operated at a loss from 2013 to 2016. However, income has increased by 34% over the past three years.
“One of the first things we did was to rehabilitate the Cango Caves Waste Water Treatment Works. It was the first time in 10 years that had been done, and it has done a lot to address water problems at the caves. Better management and dedicated budgets have seen continued high volumes of visitors to the site.
“The total profit gets reinvested into the caves to further refurbish and improve the attraction. The situation has been turned around spectacularly,” Bredell said.
Municipal manager Allen Paulse also announced that the position of senior manager at the caves had now been advertised and that the post would be filled in the coming weeks.
Finance MEC Ivan Meyer said the progress could be attributed to good management, sound financial management and political stability.
“Oudtshoorn has in the past been in the news for the wrong reasons; this time, we want to paint a new picture. What we have seen in the past two years is that Oudtshoorn is out of that bad picture,” Meyer said.
Transport and Public Works MEC Donald Grant highlighted the infrastructure investment in the province, particularly focusing on Oudtshoorn.
“We have spent over the past three years more than R7billion - in 2017/18 just more than R1bn, and Oudtshoorn specifically benefited from about R180m, of which about R145m was invested in roads infrastructure to attract tourists.”
Oudtshoorn Mayor Colan Sylvester mentioned a number of successful service delivery-oriented activities the municipality had delivered in the past year.