MTPA is mismanaged according to report
An assessment contained in the portfolio committee report on economic development state, that the MTPA is severely constrained and unable to meet their tourism commitments.
MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) is dysfunctional. This is the assessment contained in the portfolio committee on economic development and tourism’s report.
In its total budget allocation of R457 million, the MTPA pays 63 per cent towards salaries, even though it has a vacancy rate of 46 per cent. The portfolio committee reported that a health audit suggested that this would make it “dysfunctional or its employees would have been completely over-stretched”.
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However, Xolani Mthethwa, the head of tourism at the MTPA, told Lowvelder they are reviewing the employment structure to reduce and redeploy staff within the institution.
According to the 2019/20 budget, the agency has been allocated 57 per cent of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s total budget. Yet it is still underfunded by R172 million.
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According to the report, its budget allocation was insufficient and affected, among others, marketing of the province, tourism product development at Pilgrim’s Rest and Emgwenya, infrastructure upgrades, the Makhonjwa Mountain World Heritage Site and security at reserves.
The MTPA has furthermore not established a management authority for the Makhonjwa site, which risks losing its World Heritage status, according to the report.
But according to Mthethwa, the World Heritage Site is still under the mandate of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and has not been handed over to the MTPA.
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“We are planning to develop it, but the MTPA has no letter of authority from the minister of DEA to manage it,” he told the newspaper.
He added that while the function of marketing the province was transferred back to the MTPA from the Office of the Premier without a budget, this is not an indication that the province is not being marketed.
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Mthethwa said the Tourism Indaba held in Durban in May gave local tour operators a platform to exhibit their attractions on a 180-square- metre stand, which the MTPA acquired for R2 million.
Bosman Grobler, DA MPL and spokesman on economic development, said government and the MTPA do not get value for the money they spend on various projects. Grobler further said government should prioritise and focus on biodiversity.
“If you take all the attractions and tourism resorts and you privatise it, then marketing will be done by the entrepreneurs and not government, as I believe it is not government’s mandate to run tourism.”
He stressed the fact that the decaying tourism sites are our biggest assets to generate money for the province and “to rebuild will cost more than for the MTPA to maintain these sites”.
