Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has hit the campaign trail again – but this time she has called on South Africans to vote for Table Mountain, short-listed as one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature”.

De Lille and Western Cape cultural affairs, sport and Recreation MEC Ivan Meyer started the national campaign on the mountain yesterday, 77 days before the winners were to be announced.

There are 28 finalists, including the Amazon in South America, the Black Forest in Germany and Mount Vesuvius in Italy. Table Mountain and Mount Kilimanjaro are the only African contenders.

Meyer said all 70000 provincial government employees and 25000 staff from the City of Cape Town had been encouraged to vote.

He said 700000 people visited the mountain annually.

“We believe we can double that figure to 1.4 million visitors annually,” he said.