BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE- The Mahamba Methodist Church is increasingly becoming a tourist attraction site.
To prove this, the above-mentioned church, which was declared a National Monument in 2016 by His Majesty King Mswati III, has been featured on Road Trip SA, a podcast and App that gives South African tourists places to go to.
Despite being outside of South Africa, the Mahamba Methodist Church is the only monument featured as a ‘go-to’ place by RoadTrip SA.
The above-mentioned church- turned tourist attraction centre is the oldest church in Eswatini and it was built in 1912, which is 111 years ago.
Mahamba Methodist Church is said to be one of Eswatini Geosites which have potential of being a large tourist attraction site like Sibebe Rock, Ngwenya Mine and others.
When describing themselves, RoadTrip SA, the South Africa tourism site, says they highlight interesting and cool history, explain monuments and memorials, and put the history into context.
Road Trip SA is a mobile App to help tourists find monuments, museums and statues. All the listings on the app have a photo, a brief description and some history of that spot.
Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stanley Dlamini, speaking as a Heritage Specialist, said it was not surprising that there were such findings, saying the country needed to institutionalise archaeology and its other findings which had potential to attract tourists.
“Government needs to have archaeology scholarships and establish a concrete archaeology institution to formalise and organise this sector. This would increase the number of tourists flocking the country.”
He said Eswatini was a rich site for monuments and archaeology as it was explored.
Another geosite discovery suggests that the Ngwenya Mine is one of the oldest mineral sites which were excavated by Khoisans in BC.
