Derek Hanekom on facing Malusi Gigaba in visa rematch
Ministers take up old portfolios with hope of better deal for tourism
● New Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom says he wants better co-operation between his department and that of home affairs than he had in his first, “rudely interrupted”, term as tourism minister.
Hanekom was fired by then-president Jacob Zuma after proposing a motion of no confidence in him at a meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee.
Malusi Gigaba wreaked havoc on the tourism industry when he was minister of home affairs by requiring unabridged birth certificates from tourists. He and Hanekom collided head-on over the issue.
Now they’re both back. Gigaba’s destructive visa requirements are still in place, and tourists wanting to visit South Africa are still being turned back at airports because they don’t comply.
Hanekom says dealing with the issue will be a “priority matter” for him. He hopes Gigaba’s short term as finance minister has given him more insight into the damage such measures inflict on the economy. “He probably has a better understanding of the importance of tourism and the importance of every sector that will enable and contribute to economic growth, given where he’s been for the last 11 months.”
Will they meet more frequently and productively than before? “We are going to do exactly that,” he says. “There are still matters under the heading of visa requirements that need a lot of attention. For example, the unabridged birth certificates.”
He says a regulation addressing the issue needs to be gazetted. It was “pretty close” to being gazetted when he was fired, and “it still hasn’t gone out. These are matters that I have to take on now with urgency. They’re simple matters that could help unlock the potential of tourism.”
Another area of conflict between them could be Gigaba’s prior insistence on “reciprocal” visa requirements. He announced in 2016 that South Africa would impose visa requirements on countries that required visas from South Africans. “Reciprocity is a national principle,” he said, as he imposed a new visa requirement on New Zealanders.
This is another “own goal” against local tourism and the economy, says Hanekom. “We should be very careful about this notion of reciprocal arrangements. We must take our own interests into account when dealing with visas, as other countries do.”
Tourism contributes 9% to South Africa’s economy. Industry leaders, who say they are “over the moon” about Hanekom’s reappointment, say this could rise to 15% quite easily if the government came to the party.
South African Tourism boss Sisa Ntshona thinks 20% is possible.
Hanekom says the strength of tourism is that it can grow a lot quicker than other sectors. “It doesn’t need an awful lot to achieve its potential.”
He agrees with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who said in his state of the nation address that the number of tourists coming to South Africa could be doubled.
“If we do the right things,” Hanekom adds. The challenge is to get ministers and their departments to “understand and appreciate” the importance of tourism to the economy and job creation, and the need for them to work together to enhance it.
Closer co-operation with the police and
A lot of our efforts before were on trying to stop the wrong
Derek Hanekom Minister of tourism
transport departments, as well as home affairs, is high on his list of priorities. “These are very essential sister departments.”
He will engage with them on “issues of mutual concern” such as “visa facilitation”, crime, and appalling rural roads that hinder access to many tourist sites. “While tourism can grow quickly, it is also a very vulnerable sector. A few things go wrong and tourism can decline very quickly.”
Unabridged birth certificates are the starkest demonstration of this.
Hanekom talks about South Africa’s vulnerability, perceived or real, to terrorist attacks as experienced in Tunisia and Kenya. This after the UK warned its citizens that a terrorist attack in South Africa was “likely”.
But he agrees that a more serious and immediate security threat in South Africa is crime. Tourist areas need to be made safe, he says.
“Sorting out crime is a longer-term effort. What you can do is ensure that certain key places have beefed up security for tourists.”
In the frequent engagements he hopes to have with the police, his message will be: “Take certain areas, including beaches, walking trails and urban precincts, and keep them clean and safe and tourist-friendly.”
The industry has complained about SAA’s negative role in facilitating tourism. Hanekom says its role needs to be interrogated.
“In removing regulatory barriers to make it easier for people to get here, visas is one part. Airlift is the other one.
“So the discontinuation of a route such as Mumbai-Johannesburg could profoundly impact on tourist numbers and other economic considerations.”
Speculation about Guptas
SAA, under Zuma intimate Dudu Myeni, dropped its direct flight from Johannesburg to Mumbai in 2015, ostensibly because it was losing money.
“The profitability of a route — although we know there’s a lot of speculation about what lay behind that — shouldn’t be the only consideration when deciding to discontinue it,” says Hanekom.
Well-informed speculation was that the Guptas wanted the route for themselves.
Southern Africa Tourism Services Association CEO David Frost says SAA has ignored requests to work more closely with the industry.
Hanekom says: “Engagement with SAA, and the National Treasury, which is responsible for SAA now, is essential.”
He will be able to do more as tourism minister this time because he will have a more supportive regime behind him, he says. “Everybody feels that. A lot of our efforts before were on trying to stop the wrong. Now we can focus on doing the right things.
“It helps to have a government that recognises the value of tourism and its potential returns,” he says.