(CONTENTS)  (PART I)  (PART II)  (PART III)  (PART IV)  (PART V)  (PART VI)  (PART VII)

PART V

NATIONAL MONUMENTS, RELICS AND ANTIQUES

Powers and duties of the Commission in regard to national monuments, relics and antiques.

25. (1) The Commission may -

make recommendation to the Minister that it is in the national interest that he proclaim -

(i) as a national monument, any area of land having a distinctive or beautiful scenery or geological formation, or any area of land containing a rare or distinctive or a beautiful flora or fauna, or any area of land containing objects of archaeological, historical, or scientific interest or value, or any waterfall, cave, grotto, avenue of trees, old building, or any other place or object (whether natural or constructed by man) of aesthetic, historical, archaeological, scientific, sacred, or religious value or interest;

(ii) as a relic, any fossil of any kind, any drawing or painting on stone or petroglyph known or commonly believed to have been executed by Bushmen or other aboriginal inhabitants of Southern Africa, or by any people who inhabited or visited Southern Africa in ancient days, and any implement or ornament known or commonly believed to have been used by them and any anthropological or archaeological contents of the graves, caves, rock shelters, middens, shell mounds, or other sites used by them;

(iii) as an antique, any movable object (not being a monument or relic) of aesthetic, historical, archaeological or scientific value or interest, the whole or more valuable portion whereof has for more than thirty years been in any part of Southern Africa, or which was made therein more than fifty years before the publication of such notice;

(b) make a list of all areas and objects whose proclamation under section 16 it considers desirable;

(c) take steps to ascertain the owners of any place or object;

(d) purchase or otherwise acquire any such object, or by agreement with the Government or a public body or with a private person having the ownership or control of any such object, take such steps as may be practicable to preserve it;

(e) take steps for the erection of tablets in suitable places giving information in si-Swati and in English about the historical events which occurred in such places;

(f) assume control over any such object requested by the person having ownership or control thereof and as trustee for the Government accept any such object which the owner desires to donate or has bequeathed to the Government;

(g) preserve, repair, restore or insure any monument, relic or antique under its control;

(h) lend any such relic or antique to any institution;

(j) have access through any of its members at all reasonable times to any monument, relic or antique;

(k) publish or cause to be published information relating directly or indirectly to a monument, relic or antique;

(l) appoint caretakers to be responsible for the protection and maintenance of monuments, relics or antiques; (Added K.O-I-C. 22/1973)

(m) extend any provision of section 19 or 20 to any monument or relic by notice published in the Gazette. (Added K.O-I-C. 22/1973)

(2) The Commission shall -

(a) when required by the Minister investigate and report upon matters relating to an area, place or object proclaimed under section 26 or upon the desirability of so proclaiming an area, place or object;

(b) make a register of all monuments, relics and antiques. (Amended K.O-I-C. 22/1973)

Proclamation of monuments.

26. (1) Upon the recommendation of the Commission, the Minister may after consultation with the Prime Minster by notice in the Gazette proclaim an area or object to be a national monument, relic or antique, as the case may be, or increase an area proclaimed to be a monument or relic:

Provided that the proviso in section 12(1) shall mutatis mutandis apply to such proclamation.

(2) The Minister may, after consultation with the Commission, or on its recommendation, by notice in the Gazette reduce an area proclaimed to be a monument or relic in terms of subsection (1) or cancel a notice issued in terms of that subsection.

Acquisition of land and rights for the purposes of a monument, relic or antique.

27. Where a monument, relic or antique has been proclaimed under section 26, the Minister may, by purchase or otherwise and, failing agreement with the owner, shall where necessary aquire by expropriation -

(a) any area of land proclaimed as a national monument or relic in terms of section 26 necessary for the purposes of that monument or relic: (Amended K.O-I-C.22/1973)

Provided that upon the issue of a certificate under the hand of the Ngwenyama in terms of section 2(2), the land referred to in such certificate shall be acquired in the manner provided for in this paragraph and shall be transferred to the Ngwenyama in trust for the Swazi Nation.

(b) rights to construct and maintain public access roads or footpaths over any area of land to any monument or relic;

(c) rights to construct fences, walls or gates upon such land or upon, across or beside such roads or footpaths;

(d) rights to undertake and carry out such other activity as may be necessary for the preservation, restoration or repair of any monument or relic.

Noting of proclamation of monument or relic in Deeds Office.

13. (1) When the Minister proposes to proclaim or has proclaimed a defined area to be a monument or relic in terms of section 26 or when he proposes to increase or reduce or has increased or reduced any such area in terms of section 16, , he may cause beacons to be erected on the corners of the area and cause that area to be surveyed and a diagram thereof to be framed.

(2) When the Minister proposes to proclaim or has proclaimed a place or object other than a defined area, as a monument relic or antique in terms of section 26, he may cause the location of that place or object in relation to the beacons or boundaries of the land upon which it is situated, to be determined by a survey and to be indicated upon the diagram of that land filed in the Deeds Office.

(3) When the Minister has proclaimed an area, place or object to be a monument, relic or antique under section 26, or when he has increased or reduced any such area under that section, he shall furnish the Registrar of Deeds with a copy of the notice in the Gazette containing the proclamation, extension or reduction, and with a copy of any diagram which may have been made under that section in connection with the monument or relic.

(4) The Registrar of Deeds shall endorse a reference to the said proclamation, extension or reduction, and to any such diagram upon the title deed of the land in question filed in his office and in the appropriate registers, and upon the owner's title deed as soon as it is lodged in his office for any reason.

Protection of monuments, relics, antiques and other objects.

29. (1) Whenever the owner of an area or object proclaimed under section 12 or 26 alienates, pledges or lets it, he shall forthwith in writing inform the Commission of the names and addresses of the alienee, pledgee or lessee.

(2) No person shall destroy, damage, excavate, alter, remove from its original site or export any monument, relic or antique, or any meteorite or fossil or any drawing or painting or stone or petroglyph known or commonly believed to have been executed by Bushmen or other aboriginal inhabitants of Southern Africa, or any implement or ornament known or commonly believed to have been used by them, or any anthropological or archaeological contents of the graves, caves, rock shelters, middens, shell mounds or other sites used by them or any other archaeological or paleontological material or object, except under the authority of and in accordance with a permit granted under this section.

(3) On application by any person in the presecribed manner the Commission may grant, subject to any directions of the Minister, such person a permit to destroy, damage, exavate, alter, remove its original site or export any monument, relic, antique, or other object referred to in subsection (2), specified in the permit, at such time or within such period and subject to such conditions as may be imposed in such permit:

Provided that the Commission shall not give any such consent, and the Minister shall not direct the Commission to give such consent, including a direction in an appeal under subsection (4), with respect to any monument, relic, antique or other object on Swazi nation land without the prior consent in writing of the Ngwenyama.

(4) Whenever the Commission has refused an application made under this section, or has granted such application subject to any conditions, the applicant may appeal against such decision to the Minister who may confirm it or direct the Commission to grant the application subject to such conditions as he deems fit.

(5) Whenever any person has been convicted of damaging or altering anything in contravention of subsection (2), the Commission may -

(a) by notice in writing served upon such person by post or by delivery to him personally, direct him to effect such specified repairs or alterations to it within such period as may be specified therein;

(b) upon failure of such person to comply with such notice, effect or cause to be effected such repairs or alterations and recover the cost thereof from such person.

Powers of entry upon land.

30. Subject to any other law, any person authorized in writing by the Minister or the Commission may at all reasonable times enter upon any land or premises for the purpose of inspecting property to which the prohibitions of section 29 apply or in respect of which the Commission is investigating the desirability of proclaiming a national monument, relic or antique, or the desirability of including it in an area of land so proclaimed as a national monument, or for the purposes of performing in relation to such property any act authorized under sections 25 and 29.

Commission may assume control of certain monuments.

31. (1) When the Minister has proclaimed an area on Government land to be a monument or relic and such area is under the control of a local authority or is on land which the local authority has acquired from Government otherwise than by purchase or exchange, and the Commission is of the opinion that the local authority concerned does not properly administer, presere or safeguard the monument or relic, the Commission may recommend to the local authority that it take steps to administer the monument or relic in a manner indicated by the Commission.

(2) If after the expiry of three months from the receipt by the local authority of the Commission's recommendations it has failed to give effect thereto, the Commission may notify the local authority that it proposes to assume control of the monument.

(3) Within a period of one month from the receipt by the local authority of the said notification the local authority may appeal to the Minister who, after investigation, may disallow the appeal or allow it wholly or in part on such conditions as he may think fit.

(4) If the local authority does not appeal, the Commission may, after the expiry of the said period of one month or, if the Minister disallows an appeal, forthwith assume control over the monument or relic and notify the local authority in writing of that fact, and the Commission shall thereupon publish a notice in the Gazette and in a newspaper circulation in the area wherein the monument or relic is situate, that it has assumed control over the monument or relic.

(5) When the Commission has assumed control over a monument or relic, all rights of the local authority with reference to that monument or relic shall, during the period of the Commission's control, vest in the Commission.

(6) The Commission may relinquish its control over the monument or relic under this section and shall notify its relinquishment in the Gazette.

Minister may prohibit removal or export of monument, relic or antique.

32. (1) The Minister may by notice in the Gazette prohibit the removal or the export without the consent in writing of the Commission of any object or group or collection of objects which is, in the opinion of the Minister, capable of being proclaimed under section 26.

(2) The owner of any such object or group or collection of objects or of any object which forms part of such group or collection who is affected by such prohibition may submit a written objection to the Commission against such prohibition.

(3) The Commission shall transmit the objection to the Minister who may thereupon cancel, modify or confirm the prohibition.

Powers of park wardens and park officials in respect of monuments and relics.

32. bis. Subject to any restriction s or limitations imposed by the Ngwenyama in respect of a monument or relic in terms of the proviso to section 26(1), any park warden or park official acting on the orders of a park warden shall, on the premises of a monument or relic and within five miles from the boundary thereof, have the same powers as are conferred on them by section 24 for the purpose of arresting any person who is on reasonable grounds suspected of having committed an offence under this Part or for the purposes of obtaining any evidence in connection with such an offence. (Added K.O-I-C. 22/1973)

Penalties.

33. A person who knowingly -

(a) fails to comply with or contravenes any provision of section 29; or

(b) contravenes any prohibition issued under section 32; or

(c) in an application to the Comission for its consent makes a statement which is false in any material respect or supplies a drawing or photograph which is false in any material respect; or

(d) damages or destroys a tablet erected in terms of section 25(1)(e); or

(e) destroyes, damages or mars a drawing, painting or petroglyph described in section 25(1)(a)(ii) or any sbstance near such drawing, painting or petroglyph or, without the consent of the Commission, destroys or damages any part of a cave or rock in or on which there is any such drawing, painting or petroglyph; or

(f) obstructs any member of the Commission or officer or employee of the Commission in the execution of his functions or duties under this Part; or

(g) contravenes in respect of a monument or relic any provision of section 19 or 20 that may be extended to such monument or relic by the Commission by notice published in the Gazette; (Added K.O-I-C. 22/1973)

(h) contravenes a regulation made for this Part under section 43:

shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of two hundred rand or in default of payment thereof to imprisonment for six months, or both:

Provided that the Minister may by notice in the Gazette increase the penalties which may be imposed on conviction of any of the offences described in paragraphs (d), (e) and (g), in respect of specific monuments and relics, but such increased penalties shall not exceed one thousand rand or in default of payment thereof to imprisonment for three years. (Amended K. O-I-C. 22/1973.)

(CONTENTS)  (PART I)  (PART II)  (PART III)  (PART IV)  (PART V)  (PART VI)  (PART VII)