The mayor of Musina Municipality, Cllr Caroline Mahasela, and Municipal Manager Abram Luruli represented South Africa at the 2008 Inter-City Cooperation Network for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICCN) Conference in Cairo, Egypt, during the past week.

The conference also hosted the 2008 International Round Table of Mayors on the Role of Women in Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Maintenance of Culture Diversity.

The invitation was directed to municipalities with women mayors and world heritage sites. The mayor of Musina Municipality, Caroline Mahasela, is a woman and there is a world heritage site (Mapungumbwe) in the Musina municipal area.

The conference started on Sunday (October 12) and ended on Wednesday, 15 October. Mahasela and Luruli were in Egypt at the invitation of the Qalyubiya Governorate of Egypt and the first lady of Egypt, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak.

The conference focused on the promotion of women’s role in the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.  Local government leaders engaged in-depth discussion and sharing of ideas on the theme of the Role of Women in Safeguarding of Traditional Cultures and Maintenance of Cultural Diversity.

It also provided the participants with a forum where they could share the success cases of their local communities and discuss the effective ways for boosting the local economy and for the development of the local areas through the linkage between the intangible cultural heritage and tourism.

Approximately 50 participants – mayors and governors, local government administrators and experts from countries in Arabia, Asia, Africa, America, and Europe and representatives of international organisations discussed the crucial roles of local government in the development of the cultural heritage. The Musina delegation made a presentation on Mapungubwe as a world heritage site.

Speaking from Egypt on Tuesday morning, Luruli said the conference was the right place for South Africa to share information, best practices, and experience on the designated theme through inter-governmental and inter-cultural dialogues. He said it was the right place to explore the methods and means of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage and enhancing women’s roles in its promotion and transmission. “We are very proud to have Mapungubwe in our municipal area and it was the right time to market the heritage site to the whole world. We will definitely share the information with the rest of South Africa when we come back.”