Chris Barron

Why has the tourism industry been so ineffective in countering this? We have written copious times to the Minister [of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba], requesting an opportunity to put our case on the table. With what response? It was only in late September that we got a meeting with him. He said he would set up a task team, but he has not. The president announced in his state of the nation address that he would prioritise a review, but that has not taken place. We’ve worked through the minister of tourism [Derek Hanekom], who has raised these issues in cabinet. He’s been totally ineffective, too, hasn’t he? He gets things done, I would imagine, by consulting with his cabinet colleagues. He’s not going to get things done standing on a soapbox. That seems to be the only option left now, doesn’t it? Our job is to speak about what is in the best interests of our industry. We’re a major economic contributor: 9% of the economy and 1.5 million jobs. What is the projected impact? We don’t have to talk about projected, we can talk about actual. The arrivals out of China have been decimated: our companies are 90% down. The official stats are 50% down. Why does the Tourism Business Council of South Africa say the performance of the tourism and travel industry has been steady? We’ve seen declines in key markets where these biometrics have had a major impact, and that’s in India and China. Until August last year, we were doing well. And that’s a key point. We’re the only economic sector winning at the moment. You blame the decline on the visa regulations. What about crime and xenophobic violence? Crime has been there for a while. In China, before the xenophobic violence, the tour operators pulled us out of brochures. That’s the same as having your product pulled off the supermarket shelf. Nobody can buy it then. We’ve just seen Air China delay indefinitely their direct flights to South Africa — and they cite specifically the visa regulations. How many jobs have been lost? Our estimates are 5 300 in the last four months of last year. It could be as many as 100 000 by the end of the year. The Department of Home Affairs says capturing biometric data will make South Africa safer. If security is such a huge threat, why don’t we have a single machine in place [in China] yet for capturing the biometric information? Don’t other countries have similar visa requirements? We’re the only country requiring people to take the actual birth certificate and a whole wad of supporting documentation if you’re a single parent. This is totally out of kilter with international best practice, which requires a valid passport and visa if necessary. Home affairs says the birth certificate requirement will stop child trafficking. Home affairs has bandied around a figure of 30 000 children. We’ve gone to the source of that number, which is a person at a particular NGO who says she was misquoted. When you try and correlate that with reported cases of children missing, it’s 2% of that. And we don’t know if they’re missing within South Africa or being taken across land or air borders. Home affairs says you don’t care about the children in South Africa. One of the things children in South Africa need is food on their table every night — and that’s what we provide. Has there been any consultation with the industry at all? No consultation whatsoever. Is there a constitutional remedy? Our first, second and third prize is to have a review. When the president announced it, we thought sanity had prevailed. We’ve been waiting for some intercession from the president or deputy president. The deputy president co-authored the National Development Plan, which emphasises the importance of tourism. Have you gone to him? We’ve tried, but we don’t have automatic access to these higher offices in the country. What’s the response been? Nothing from either the deputy president or president’s office. Isn’t consultation a constitutional requirement? I imagine it is, and we may be forced to look at remedies in that avenue. What’s really going on here, do you think? There’s a bunch of securocrats who have got themselves worked up about the problem and I think the solutions they’ve come up with are incredibly naive. It would be so useful if they could turn to us and say: “Thailand brought in birth certificates and reduced child trafficking by 60%.” But when you’re the only country doing this, when you’re the only person that has a light-bulb moment and you think you’re the biggest genius in the world, we all pause a bit and think: “Why only me? Why am I the first guy to think of this?” But not them. There’s been no introspection. The only thing they’ve been active and quite strident in is not engaging with us on anything. Because as soon as you start putting the facts on the table, this thing falls over like a house of cards.