117 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 R. Parthesius, J. Sharfman (eds.), Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Management on the Historic and Arabian Trade Routes, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55837-6_7 Chapter 7 Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage in South Africa Jonathan Sharfman 7.1 South Africa’s Legislative Framework South Africa has promoted itself as a heritage policy leader on the African continent but has struggled to fnd a relevant and implementable framework for management and research aimed at its MUCH. For the most part, treasure hunters, legislators, and later archaeologists and heritage managers, have adopted a reactionary approach to submerged cultural resources. Infuenced by the politics of the day, external pres- sures and changing public sentiment, it has taken South Africa almost half a century to develop its current, predominantly management focused approach to underwater cultural heritage. Although legislation that regulates activities aimed at archaeological sites was promulgated in the 1960s (National Monuments Act, no.28 of 1969) legal frame- works aimed underwater cultural heritage generally, and shipwrecks more specif- cally, have been a more recent addition to South Africa’s heritage management systems (Gribble and Sharfman 2013). It was not until the National Monuments Act (Act 35 of 1979) was amended a decade later that shipwrecks were recognized as heritage resources potentially worthy of protection (Deacon 1993). Even then wrecks could only be declared as signifcant at the discretion of the relevant govern- ment Minister. To assist the Minister, a committee was established by the National Monuments Council to draw up a list of wrecks deemed to meet the criteria for nomination to the national register. These included wrecks that carried valuable cargoes or represented landmark events in South Africa’s history. Despite their best efforts, however, none of the wrecks listed were ever formally protected. This may have been partly because the majority were not located but, more signifcantly, was the result of apathy towards the resource even amongst individuals appointed as J. Sharfman (*) New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates