During a routine check on 2 January 2016, Professor Chris Henshilwood and Dr Karen Van Niekerk discovered that a vandal or vandals had broken through the protective panels at the entrance to Blombos Cave and had then climbed into the cave through the opening. This caused two sections to collapse, and a third collapsed when the vandal/s went out again after riffling through the excavation boxes stored there. Fortunately nothing of value was stolen .

Prof Henshilwood, who has done everything possible to limit unauthorized access to the site, stressed that Blombos Cave is a Western Cape Provincial Heritage Site and is in the process of being nominated as a World Heritage Site. The contents of the cave are highly fragile and further damage could take months or years to repair and lead to irreplaceable information being lost.

If anyone has information that could lead to the vandal/s being identified, the police should be notified immediately because the site is legally protected by provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999).

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