As Bafana Sibanyoni from Centurion, Johannesburg stood in line at the Lower Station Ticket Office he had no idea that his Cableway experience was about to catch a ride to entirely new commemorative heights. His girlfriend Mbali Ntanzi, who also happened to be celebrating her birthday today, joined Bafana.
The couple were rewarded a prize fit for the 25 millionth visitor - a Cableway hamper including tickets, a Café voucher and Cableway merchandise. Other prizes included a weekend stay at The Taj Hotel, a R1,000 V&A Waterfront gift voucher, Groot Constantia Governor's Reserve wine, Groot Constantia wine and chocolate tasting, entry to Kirstenbosch and to Cape Point; as well as City Sightseeing Bus tickets.
"I am speechless but completely overjoyed," said Bafana. "We weren't going to do our trip up the mountain today and even got lost on our way here, but it's as if everything happened as it did for a reason and here we are - celebrities of Table Mountain Cableway. This is also a wonderful added birthday present for Mbali. I am all smiles."
The growth of the Cableway has been exponential since the introduction of the new revolving cabins, with Cableway doubling its numbers of 1997 to reach 22 million visitors in November 2012. Amongst a league of extraordinary attractions, Table Mountain was named a New 7 Wonders of Nature in 2012, adding to record growths in tourism numbers as the "wonder effect" took hold and visitors flocked to the mountain.
"We have been monitoring the ticket sales over the past few weeks and with our record breaking festive season we knew we would reach our latest milestone relatively soon," said Cableway's marketing manager Collette van Aswegen. "The wind of late has been the talk of the town, but given a few still days, we were able to welcome Bafana and his girlfriend Mbali to the mountain and celebrate what will hopefully be the 25th of many more millions."
