The message is clear, action is now awaited

The Hazyview Chamber of Business and Tourism is confident that its message has now been heard loud and clear at provincial and national levels and is hopeful that action will follow.

So says chairman Chris Harvie after two major recent meetings that addressed tourism issues in the Lowveld and Mpumalanga.

He told Hazyview Herald they realise that problems like safety issues, service delivery protests and crumbling infrastructure are not limited to this area, but affect the whole country. “The failure of local and provincial structures must obviously be addressed urgently, but first prize will be for the national minister to intervene and to deal with all the major issues affecting tourism at top level,” he said. “Only then can we get on with growing South African tourism, thus saving jobs and businesses from the current chaos and ultimately create more tourism entrepreneurs and increased employment.”

His reaction follows a meeting with minister of tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, at Casa do Sol as well as an earlier meeting at Church Unlimited in Mbombela. From both meetings it became clear that there was a complete dissonance between government’s perspective and that of the private sector regarding tourism’s state of affairs.

At the Mbombela meeting the private tourism sector demanded the redeployment of the CEO of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), because of the organisation’s failure to assist Local Tourism Organisations and the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business (KLCBT) for the last four years.

At that meeting Harvie also emphasised the impact tourist attacks had on the industry. “I saw grown men cry, who got robbed at gunpoint and left abandoned next to the road.”

He said tour operators are faced with compensation claims under European law, as they get sued for the hardships tourists face here. He reiterated how difficult it was to meet with the MTPA and that it has failed to market the tourism diversity.

“They own our brand, but they do nothing to revive it. If you follow MTPA on social media, you would think they live on another planet.” Both Oupa Pilane, president of the KLCBT and Athol Stark, the COO of Highveld Tourism, handed over petitions to the minister at the meeting with her.

Kubayi-Ngubane, however, rejected the demands that the MTPA board be sacked, but agreed that representation on the board had to come from the private sector and government employees who understood public finance management.

The minister said she knew about the protests and would engage with the communities to explain the negative impact on tourism and employment. The responsibility lay with the national Department of Safety and Security which, in conjunction with business, private sector and municipalities, needed to implement proactive measures to address crime.

Kubayi-Ngubane also promised that the poor state of roads in the area and the impact it has on tourism will be addressed with the Department of Transport.