Page 101 - Bulletin 17 2013

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Opinions about the cableway differed for many decades. L. van der Post, a reporter on the

Cape Times in 1929, wrote: “The top station has been mockingly called ‘The Pimple.’ Yet a
good deal could be said for pimples if they were always as dramatically imposed on nature as

the cableway station on Table Mountain. Had a natural upheaval created a structure exactly
like the station in precisely the same place on the mountain no-one would, of course, have

criticised it. But what is actually a far more impressive achievement – the building of the
summit station, and indeed the whole mechanical cableway over a tremendous abyss –

actually met with derision.”

Author Lawrence Green wrote in 1964: “I am no admirer of the Table Mountain cableway,

for it has spoilt the grandeur of the table and there was no need for the hideous contraption. A

motor road from Constantia Nek would have served the purpose.”

The Cableway was not an immediate financial success because it opened just weeks before
the Great Crash of 28 October 1929. The Depression followed and during the early 1930s

Oppenheimer and Graaff withdrew their money, and in 1932 Strömsöe dropped out, too,
leaving Hennessy to carry on. It was not until after World War II, and the general economic

recovery and the growth of tourism, that the Cableway’s fortunes improved and its success

was ensured. (Figs. 2.16 – 2.18.) By 1959 it had carried one million visitors, by 1970 a
second million, and by 1975 a further million. (Hey, 1994.)

The type of cable-car in use remained essentially the same between 1929 – 1997 with a

carrying capacity of 25 – 28 passengers each, though metal cars replaced the wood and iron
ones in the late 1950s. The first track ropes remained in use for 40 years and when replaced

showed virtually no signs of wear. A major upgrade took place in 1997 when the cars were

replaced by the rotating Swiss Garaventa model attached to two track ropes for improved
stability. Each car carries 65 visitors and during the peak summer season up to 10,000 visitors

per day are taken to the top. Today the cableway is driven from the lower station making

servicing a much easier task. The track ropes are anchored on a bollard behind the upper
station and two 350-ton counter-weights at the lower station to keep them off of the ground.

Since opening in 1929 the Cableway has not experienced one fatality from the transport of

visitors. One unfortunate death did occur when a young lady walked around the upper station
and sat on a moving part of the buffer.