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If it's Thursday, it's Table Mountain!

South Africans have been called on to set aside 30 seconds every Thursday to vote for the country's nominee – one of only two African nominees – in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition.

Table Mountain is one of 28 finalists that have made it through to the final round of the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, in which the world's top natural sites are being whittled down to seven winners in an exercise in global democracy that is expected to draw over a billion participants.

Voting will end with the announcement of the seven winners on 11 November (11.11.11), and as Sabine Lehmann, chairperson of the Table Mountain Bid Committee, points out: "Once the final seven are decided, that's it.

"South Africans have to make sure that our flat-topped wonder makes it into the final seven," says Lehmann. "It's a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to create a legacy, an opportunity that we can't ignore – there will never be another election like it."

The Table Mountain Bid Committee, with the backing of the Department of Tourism, South African Tourism and the International Marketing Council of South Africa, has called on all South Africans to help the country make history.

How to vote

• Cast your vote online at www.new7wonders.com

Anyone can vote online (follow the link above), as well as via SMS, for the 7 Wonders of their choice.

South Africans can vote by SMS for Table Mountain in six of the country's 11 official languages, as follows:

• English: send TABLE to 34874
• Zulu: send ITAFULA to 34874
• Xhosa: send ITAFILE to 34874
• Afrikaans: send TAFEL to 34874
• Sesotho: send TAFOLE to 34874
• Tswana: send TAFOLE to 34874

SMS's cost R2.00 each, and can be sent on all mobile networks in South Africa.

You can also vote by phone, as follows: dial 0044 20 334 709 01 and then insert the code 7725 (Table Mountain's voting code). Once you hear the "thank you" message, you have voted and may hang up.

To the winners the rewards

According to Lehmann, victory for Table Mountain would mean that for thousands of years to come, children would be learning about it as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and that it will forever have a place in the world's history books.

If Table Mountain is selected, South Africa can also expect a massive boost in tourism revenue and brand value, Lehmann says, pointing to studies that have shown that those sites named in 2007 as the New 7 Wonders of the man-made world have seen an increase of more than US$5-billion (R35-billion) in tourism revenue and brand value.

SAinfo reporter