Bay tourism body set to be taken back by metro
Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism is set to be dissolved and the functions moved back to the municipality.
The decision was taken late on Tuesday night by the council after all councillors supported a motion tabled by the EFF.
It comes in the wake of a funding crisis at Bay Tourism, which is waiting for the R7m funding from the municipality to be able to operate.
It employs 28 people, including brand ambassadors, and supports a membership of around 260 private tourism products and site operators.
Along with its head office, it operates centres at the Donkin Reserve and in Uitenhage.
Before the motion was debated, the council approved a plan to enter into a funding agreement with the tourism body which would allow the city to pay it for its services.
EFF councillor Zilindile Vena said having Bay Tourism and a municipal tourism department was a duplication of services.
The motion was agreed upon by all parties, with some agreeing to it in principle pending investigations around how it would be implemented and the costs thereof.
In the same motion, Vena moved that water meter readers who were employed by outside firms should be insourced by the municipality.
Vena said the municipality could carry out meter reading and tourism services without the help of “a middleman”.
“We have a tourism [wing] but we continue injecting R14m per annum to a Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism which renders services that can be rendered in-house,” he wrote.
On Wednesday, Vena said: “Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism gets 95% of its funding from the municipality.
“Instead of having a board, we must have a director [heading up the department] in the department itself.
“We are saying that the department must look into the modalities around taking some of the people who are working at NMBT and insource them and create a unit.” It is unclear
when the plan would be implemented.
“If you look at other cities, the function of tourism is inhouse, we have looked into cities like e-Thekwini and Joburg which have tourism inhouse and tourism is booming there,” Vena said.
The municipality will now have to investigate how the move will affect its budget and the possibility of adding new positions to its organogram.
On Wednesday, the brakes were put on paying Bay Tourism following the motion.
Economic development, tourism and agriculture boss Anele Qaba said he was yet to see the minutes from Tuesday’s meeting and could not comment further.
Bay Tourism board chair Buli Ngomane said the intention to dissolve the entity had not been communicated to her.
She said the intention was nothing new to them.
“This is a similar motion to one proposed within the last two years.
“We exist as the city’s destination marketing office and our board of directors is selected by the tourism industry itself as well as the office of the executive mayor.
“If this motion comes to fruition, I am certain they will communicate it to us and a way forward will emerge.”
She said the only thing communicated to them had been the approval of the funding agreement to pay them.
ANC councillor Andile Lungisa said having a full-fledged tourism department in the municipality would put an end to a duplication of work.
“If it is within the municipality, it won’t need to have a board of directors and a CEO and it will be able to generate an income.”
The DA and ACDP supported the motion in principle and warned that the city already had a large wage bill.
DA councillor Retief Odendaal said the party was wary of taking a decision to insource when it was not clear if money was available.
“There is a difference between insourcing security from contract security because we are essentially just taking over the personnel.
“Essentially, we don’t have a problem, but they must bring a report of how exactly they will go about this and council will make a final decision,” Odendaal said.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said a cost analysis was necessary.
“With the insourcing of security, the EFF shot themselves in the foot and it cost the municipality more money, and we had to either adjust the budget or reduce the number of people we were going to insource,” Grootboom said.
“We have to follow all the processes.”