Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and former State President FW de Klerk have pledged their support for Table Mountain in the race to be named one of the New7Wonders of Nature.
With just over two months remaining in the campaign, the Vote for Table Mountain supporting committee is proud to welcome two of South Africa’s most famous faces to the list of ambassadors calling on all South Africans to vote. They add their support to a third Nobel Peace prize winner — Nelson Mandela — who called Table Mountain “A Mountain of Hope”.
At the opening of the Table Mountain National Park in 1998, former president Mandela said: “During the many years of incarceration on Robben Island we often looked across Table Bay at the magnificent silhouette of Table Mountain. To us on Robben Island, Table Mountain was a beacon of hope. It represented the mainland to which we knew we would one day return.”
FW de Klerk, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela said: “Table Mountain is the defining visual icon of Cape Town and South Africa. It has been the backdrop to the unfolding of South African history. Its imposing stature makes one forget that Table Mountain has more plant species than all of the United Kingdom, hence its declared status as a World Heritage Site.”
“I really can understand how, when God created all that there is he said, ‘I think I’ve got to do something special here’. And so God produced this fantastic gateway in the South —Table Mountain — our mountain, what a wonder! Help us take our rightful place among the New 7 Wonders of Nature,” says Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Table Mountain is the only New7Wonders of Nature Finalist in a country with three living Nobel Peace Prize winners who are supporting its cause. The Vote for Table Mountain campaign now has three iconic South Africans, who have played a significant role in the restoration and growth of its rainbow nation, promoting the success of its iconic mountain.