More than 15 million visitors have taken a ride up the 1 213m "rope" span of Table Mountain's famous cableway, which on Monday celebrates its 75th anniversary. We take a look at the cableway company's fascinating history since its official opening on October 4, 1929.
Seventy-five years ago on Monday the then mayor of Cape Town, the Reverend AJS Lewis, rode to the summit of Table Mountain to perform the official opening of the city's brand-new cableway system.
Probably somewhat nervously, but doubtless also with a great deal of civic pride, Lewis travelled in an open wooden gondola, or cablecar, that carried a maximum of just 20 passengers and one attendant up the 1 213m cable (more correctly, "rope") span.
Since then, more than 15 million visitors have made the same trip equally safely.
A handful of them have gone reluctantly, like former prime minister and diehard traditionalist mountaineer Field Marshal Jan Smuts. He hated the cableway and only travelled on it once when protocol demanded during the 1947 Royal Visit.
But for the majority of visitors it's an experience filled with awe, wonder and delight at being transported with ease up one of the world's great natural wonders.
Stromsoe's proposal excited prominent city businessman Sir Alfred Hennesey, who persuaded two other wealthy partners - Sir David Graaff and Sir Ernest Oppenheimer - to join him in establishing the company with founding capital of £10 000.
Hennesey, his wife, Stromsoe and others made the first ascent on the new cableway on August 9, 1929, with the official opening by Lewis less than two months later.
Today's ride is very different to that experienced by those pioneer visitors.
Among other improvements, the gondola system has been upgraded three times: in 1958, when the new gondolas carried 24 passengers; again in 1974, to carry up to 28; and most recently in October 1997, during a major upgrade costing more than R100-million.
Now the two state-of-the-art cablecars with their rotating floors each give up to 65 passengers a 360° view of the city and mountain during the ride that takes between just over three minutes to nine minutes, depending on the speed the cableway is being operated.
There are just two other such rotating cableways: on Mount Titlis in Switzerland and in Palm Springs in the United States.
"These cars are built to the same standards as a Boeing or an Airbus - the extruded aluminium, the pressure of the rivets and they have to have a maintenance schedule like an aircraft," says John Harrison, managing director of what is usually just called the cableway company, but what is formally the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company.
Harrison became involved in 1993 when the Hennesey family decided to sell their shares and offered them to his co-directors. Two of them - Ron Reed and current company chairman Louis de Waal - accepted the offer and approached Harrison, a former stockbroker, to raise the necessary capital.
"Raising money for a tourist attraction in 1993 was extremely difficult. Banks just said: 'Pass'," Harrison recalls.
"But I did manage to raise the money for them, and then they invited me with my financial skills - they are both engineers - to join, and that was the core business."
When they acquired the company in 1994, it was valued at R12,3-million and had R6-million in cash. Now it's worth a quarter of a billion rand and turns over R77-million a year.
There is a permanent staff of just over 60, which doubles in summer when contract staff are employed.
"So it's gone from quite a small little thing to being quite a serious operation," says Harrison.
Catering for the huge number of visitors on the summit is a major task.
"We go through a ton-and-a-half of hot chips every three days in summer, and that's all got to be frozen, taken up, eaten and then of course we bring the remains down as well," explains Harrison.
This refers to the fact that earlier restaurant waste was burned at the top of the mountain and the sewerage system was a soak-away down Fountain Ravine. Now all the waste - including human waste - is removed from the mountain.
And it's not only a "mountain" of food that's involved.
"In December last year, we sold more tins of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages on the mountain than any outlet in the V&A (Waterfront)," Harrison points out.
Between Christmas and New Year that can be as many as 20 000 tins a day. "That's 20 tons that has to go up, the empty tins have to be brought down, and we have to restock for the next day. Plus we take up our water and electricity.
Harrison and his staff have seen all sorts of behaviour and idiosyncrasies.
"Outside here we've had really famous models jumping up and down screaming: 'Who's here to meet me?'
"And then we've had people like (Formula 1 driving champion) Michael Schumacher, who stood with his wife in a queue as he didn't want to make a scene."
Harrison's first "serious" visitor after his appointment was pop singer Tina Turner, who wanted to be filmed alone in the cable car.
"We couldn't let her go alone for safety reasons, and we didn't just want to put in a junior gondola master, so she asked me if I would go.
"The photographers at the top of the mountain didn't want me in the picture.
"So they filmed her coming up 'alone' in the gondola - she was standing at the front on a soapbox - and there I was lying on the floor looking up at her. This was my introduction to VIPs."
There have been scores of others: the Prince of Spain, the King of Thailand, cabinet ministers (but not former environment minister Valli Moosa, who used to walk up regularly with his team), Lord of the Dance's Michael Flatley, tennis star Steffi Graf, Cape Town's beloved Archbishop Tutu, actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Denzil Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Colin Farrell...
Harrison is particularly proud that the company's environmental management system was awarded a sought-after ISO 14001 certification by the SA Bureau of Standards in May last year - the world's highest environmental standard - and of the upgraded path system and other improvements they've introduced around the upper cableway station on the Western Table.
He's also rightly proud of the fact that the cableway was voted tops for service in a survey done by Cape Metropolitan Tourism, edging out tough competitors like Kirstenbosch, Cape Point and the Waterfront.
Many tourists will probably only go to Table Mountain's summit once in their lives, Harrison says.
"And it's our job to make sure they go home with really wonderful memories of that one-off trip.
"We will be measured by our ability to create a balance between tourism and the environment. our challenge was to create a world-class tourist attraction and not only maintain the environment, but actually improve it."
Birthday time: What better way to celebrate a birthday than with lots of friends - and in this case, that really is lots of friends!
As part of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway company's 75th birthday celebrations, it is offering a free ticket to all South Africans on their birthday.
"Simply present your South African identity document at the box office and you will get one free return ticket to enjoy on your special day," says Sabine Lehmann, the cableway company's general manager.
"There's so much to see and do on top of Table Mountain: free guided walks, beautiful fynbos, stunning views over Cape Town, dassies and black eagles," she said.
"It's a great day out for the whole family." To help celebrate its 75 years, the company is offering a number of special deals and discounts for local residents all year. These include:
Please note: terms and conditions apply. Phone
021 424 0015 for details.
- This article was originally published on page 10 of The Cape Argus on October 04, 2004
