UPDATE: Mpumalanga tourism department deploys police to closed sites
The MEC for tourism condemned the closure of the attractions by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency’s employees.
The head of the Mpumalanga Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Immy Serakalala, has requested the deployment of police at the tourist sites affected by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) employees’ ongoing illegal strikes.
This is according to a statement released by the MEC for economic development and tourism, Makhosazane Masilela, on Friday, March 21.
The strikes at several of the MTPA’s tourist sites were reported on Thursday, March 20. The sites affected are the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, including God’s Window, Burke’s Luck Potholes and the Three Rondawels; the Manyeleti Nature Reserve and the Loskop Dam Nature Reserve.
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“Serakalala has requested the police ensure no one blockades the entrances of the affected tourism attractions, thereby ensuring easy access for tourists. Meanwhile, the MTPA’s management has approached the Labour Court, on an urgent basis, to interdict the striking employees,” Masilela said.
She also condemned these illegal strikes. “Their [the MTPA employees’] actions cast our province in a negative light to the outside world, as domestic and even international tourists have been blocked from entering the various tourism sites. We have also been informed that some tourists were even trapped inside one of our nature reserves when the striking MTPA employees barricaded the gates and refused to let them exit. Some ten buses full of tourists were refused entry and that was a huge loss to our tourism industry and the economy,” Masilela said.
“I do not think this is the appropriate way for staff members to express their disagreement with the entity’s management. There are appropriate platforms to engage on their grievances, rather than sabotaging the industry that pays their salaries. We are looking forward to welcoming tourists over this long weekend, and such unwarranted actions cannot be accepted,” she added.
Masilela also extended an apology to all tourists who had experienced the strikes’ effects.
