ANC squeezes the life out of tourism

OUR current rulers claim tourism is the panacea for South Africa’s ills, but the truth is that the industry is going downhill fast to join other failed facilities that were fully functional when they were handed over to the ANC in 1994.

Although strategies have been published and laws promulgated, they have not been applied or policed. Instead, the tentacles of cadre greed and economic ineptitude are strangling a onceflourishing industry.

Contained in the KZN Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s strategy document of 2004 was a clause stating that municipalities must establish tourist information offices with independent community tourism organisations (CTOS) to manage them.

Municipalities were directed to provide half of a CTO’S annual budget and district municipalities were ordered to co-fund CTOS in partnerships with local municipalities.

Everyone involved in tourism in the province has to be registered with Tourism Kwazulu-natal and it is obligatory for every tourism role-player to join their local CTO, otherwise they will not be eligible for a business licence. Disbanded CTOS now want to know how they can continue to operate legally.

Promised funding for CTOS never materialised. Instead, independent CTOS have been hijacked by municipalities. The chosen method is to stop funding CTOS, kick out experienced staff and then replace them with municipal employees who have no tourism knowledge.

CTOS commandeered by a municipality become part of a governmental unit so they are subjected to its administrative practices and restrictions. And because a municipality does not have a constitution, it cannot levy membership subscriptions.

Tourist information offices are required to be open to visitors every day, including busy weekends, but those under municipal control are often closed.

Despite the advent of informative websites, tourists prefer talking to humans when they want local information, maps and brochures. And if they don’t find what they need they will move on to the next destination.

Several CTOS in Kwazulunatal have fallen victim to Ancorchestrated seizures, the first being the thriving Bushmans River Tourism of Estcourt. It was forced to close in 2004, when the Emtshezi Municipality turned a blind eye to official directives, cut off funding and put one of its own staff in the info office.

The Bergville CTO suffered a similar fate when the manager of the district municipality arbitrarily decided not to fund its operations.

Newcastle Tourism is now under municipal control and Dundee Tourism, at the heart of the popular Battlefields Route, could be the next CTO to be axed.

At the end of July funding for the Howick CTO was cut off after it survived for seven years on a miserable municipal subsidy. Had it not been for an army of unpaid volunteers and two generous grants from the N3 Gateway Tourism Association, it would not have survived that long.

Takeovers of CTOS by municipalities occurred in other provinces, too, despite the Local Government Municipal Structures Act No 117 of 1998, which makes it clear that funding for community tourism projects must come from district and local municipalities.

Although the act states that a district municipality must give a valid reason for refusing funding, applications are ignored.

Dysfunctional Anc-dominated municipalities are deliberately disregarding published regulations and diverting funds to their own illegal activities. This is one of the causes of the collapse of our tourism industry.

Another reason is that, instead of spreading funding around to boost other tourism assets, millions of rand are being poured into attractions highlighting personalities involved in “the struggle”.

A farm opposite the roadside monument at the spot where Nelson Mandela was arrested near Howick in 1962 was bought by the umngeni Municipality for R3 million in 2010, and the

KZN Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs pledged R8m towards building a museum and amphitheatre.

It is certainly a popular attraction for visitors but eight years later this project has still not been completed and the cost has ballooned to R100m. Taxpayers have a right to demand an audit to discover where all this money is going.

Only last week the department pledged another R5m towards the R40m it will cost to renovate the Manaye Hall in Pietermaritzburg, where Mandela made his final speech before his arrest.

Is it a priority to splurge millions on an obscure building instead of funding CTOS?

Another victim of ANC culling was the Community Tourism Association of SA (CTA), founded in 1985, which had 110 members and mentored the staff of publicity associations and CTOS.

It had to cease operating in 2005, when municipal funding of CTOS was axed and members could not pay their annual subscriptions.

Government funding could have rescued this important association, but its demise went unnoticed.

The noble objective of the

CTA was to train CTO staff, foster efficiency and professionalism, co-ordinate the development of tourism infrastructures, organise informative workshops for staff, councillors and officials, and co-ordinate networking among members.

Twenty years ago the CTA, a private-sector body with a seat on the national Tourism Liaison Council (TLC), developed and published detailed strategies that became a blueprint for the establishment of all CTOS.

It was copied by provincial tourism departments, but it has since been jettisoned. The ANC also disbanded the TLC.

The revised Kwazulu-natal Tourism Act of 2002 contains legislated clauses that are also no longer observed.

They include the declaration that municipalities must:

Monitor tourism-related businesses to ensure they comply with legislation.

Facilitate the participation of local communities in the tourism industry.

Comply with the requirements specified in national and provincial legislation.

Be aware that they are responsible for local tourism within their areas of jurisdiction.

Some time after the CTA was disbanded, the KZN Department of Economic Development and Tourism decided to form its own CTA.

MEC at the time, Mike Mabuyakhulu, published a strategy for the formation of community tourism organisations titled “Towards Effective Publicity Associations”.

In the foreword, Mabuyakhulu trumpeted: “It will harness the collective wisdom of all tourism stakeholders in the province.”

This is nothing more than political poppycock. The CTA of KZN might have an office and staff in Pietermaritzburg, but it is moribund. It is supposed to organise informative liaison meetings with CTO staff at least four times a year, but has failed to do so.

Nevertheless, like other government departments, staff are paid salaries for apparently doing nothing.

Tourism Kwazulu-natal also has its detractors, for frequent unannounced staff changes have white-anted our once-efficient provincial tourism body.

Their website confirms that “effective and sustainable transformation” has taken place, as evidenced by a total absence of employees who are not black.

Skilled former staffers who helped establish the tourism authority were subjected to defamatory behaviour and racial abuse to such an extent that their health was affected and they resigned.

Failure to adhere to policies and regulations introduced by ANC politicians and officials has sown so much confusion that confidence in the future sustainability of the tourism industry has been badly eroded.

Another contributing factor causing a huge drop in visitor numbers is a concern about safety. Thousands of prospective foreign tourists who see and read about incidents of tourist coaches being hijacked, visitors mugged, buses and railway carriages burned and main highways blocked by protesters are avoiding South Africa like the plague – and the situation will not improve unless the government takes steps to tighten security.

Jones, a former director of the Community Tourism Association of SA, has been active in the tourism industry for 44 years.