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Date: 07/09/2004
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government
Title: S Moloto: Tourism Summit


WELCOME ADDRESS BY MR SELLO MOLOTO, PREMIER OF LIMPOPO, DURING THE TOURISM SUMMIT AT THE RANCH HOTEL, Polokwane, 7 September 2004

Programme director
CEO of South Africa Tourism
Members of the Executive Council
MPs and MPLs present here
Mayors of District and Local Municipalities
Our Traditional Leaders
Representatives of the Business Community
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is befitting to be convening this summit in a month, which has been declared tourism month. There is going to be a hype of activity in this province around tourism during this month.

On the 24th of this month we will be converging at Mapungubwe to officially launch the Mapungubwe National Park, whilst on the 27th we will be celebrating the International Tourism Day in Phalaborwa. We hold a strong a belief that these activities will contribute towards exposing and harnessing the tourism potential of our province.

Throughout the world tourism is regarded as a major job creating sector in the modern day economy. It is said that out of eight tourists who visit the country, one direct and three indirect jobs are created.

Our province is renowned to be endowed with natural resources, unique heritage and scenic beauty. We take pride in having the two of the national orders derived from our province, i.e. the order of Mapungubwe and the order of Baobab, which indeed affirm our province and people as being resilient, steadfast like the Baobab, and striving for excellence as was in the ancient Mapungubwe.

History has it that the first civilisation occurred in Mapungubwe, which straddled over the confluence of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The great Mapungubwe is recorded in history as one of the flourishing Iron Age Metropol, which traded in gold, ivory and animal skin in the whole of Africa and the far flung nations of the east including the Chinese, Indians and Arabs in the middle-east. This happened long before Africa was conquered and colonised.

The forthcoming launch of Mapungubwe National Park on the 24th of this month in the Province will contribute immensely to the formation of yet another major transfrontier conservation area, the Limpopo Shashe Park, which will include Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe in the northwest linking with the Greater Limpopo Park towards Mozambique to the east. The challenge we face as the province is how then do we reclaim and restore the historic pride of our province that is being the cradle of Ancient Mining and trade.

In the context of being a link and gateway to Africa, we should and must ensure that our province's strategic location, being in the centre of SADC, our development is geared towards realising this objective. We have got all the reasons to pursue this path of development, because we are following the tracks and footprints of our forbearers. For it is within reach, possible and it can be done.

The Modjadji dynasty remains the only royal house in Africa where a woman reins supreme as a Queen, with some supernatural powers capable of making rain, stands out as yet another distinguishing feature of Limpopo.

Just a day ago and every year during Easter pilgrimages of more than 3 million people converge in Moria city for prayers. These people are drawn from all over SADC Countries, like Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and as far as Malawi.

In entering the city every one is filled with the spirit of holiness and peace. They all feel at home in this province and have got a very strong spiritual attachment to the province and they have a very strong spiritual attachment to the province. This pilgrimage contributes in more ways than one towards the well being of this province as their spiritual domicile like MECA of Saudi Arabia is to the Muslim Community.

Unfortunately, as the provincial government and the Tourism Board itself, which is tasked with the responsibility to promote tourism attraction centres in the province, the issue of Moria has never been given the necessary prominence it deserves.

The Process of declaring Dzata in Vhembe and Tjate in Sekhukhune to the status of world heritage sites is well underway. On the 16th of this month we will be unveiling the statue of the warrior King Sekhukhune I in Tjate.

We have said before that our rich cultural and artistic diversity is the strength, which has never been exploited to its fullest potential. As one travels to many centres in the country, the floors and corridors are decorated with the art and craft from this province. One wonders where these crafts are taken from and who are the people involved in this artwork, and most importantly whether the crafters and carvers benefit from their talent and toil.

In this regard, we are faced with a challenge of creating a better environment for this talented sons and daughters of Limpopo to thrive in a beneficial manner.

Programme Director

We have said in other forums that our tourism promotion strategy has always been focusing on the outside world, particularly Europe. We don't blame anybody for this because this is the legacy of colonialism we are called upon to contend with. This attests to the fact that even the linkages, which are there, particularly flight linkages, will follow colonial patterns. You will find that if one wants to fly to Cameroon, you first have to fly to Paris in France in order to connect back to Cameroon, and the same may be said for Angola and many other African countries who still have strong links with their former colonisers than their neighbours.

It may sound like a joke that Orlando Pirates football club could not honour its match with one of the clubs in Cameroon precisely because of difficulties presented by the flight routes or connections. This then brings into sharp focus the relevance and the amount of work that needs to be done in order to ensure that objectives of African Renaissance and NEPAD are realised

Programme Director

Very little has been done in tapping into the potential of the local or domestic market. An example thereof is that of one MEC who despite growing up in Phalaborwa, could only enter the Kruger National Park for the first time in his life around 1995 when he was already working, whilst the Phalaborwa Kruger gate is less than 5km from his home.

The only experience he had about Kruger National Park has been whenever the wild animals forced their way out of the Park into the villages and caused havoc by killing people and domestic animals.

We have a responsibility to develop a tourism strategy, which embraces a stronger domestic content and the regional focus, as we are the heartland of SADC. For this is within reach, possible can and should be done.

Programme Director

Every Friday you find a convoy of vehicles driving from Gauteng Province to Zimbabwe and further North, the same occurs every Sunday on their return journey, a phenomena which will be common in all other routes from Botswana and Mozambique. We must as Limpopo take full advantage of our gateway status through building on people to people contact, which must include cross-border trade. Already towns like Musina in the far north of the Province are being maintained through trade with people in the southern part of Zimbabwe. The same cannot be said of Polokwane because the majority of people from Zimbabwe will prefer Johannesburg to Polokwane.

We haven't as yet taken advantage of the fact that Polokwane is the fastest growing city in the country, and that in fact the goods, which these people are looking for in Johannesburg, can be readily available in Polokwane.

The potential of our towns particularly those along the N1 road would have to be developed and nurtured in order to respond to these new opportunities, which have not been fully explored.

Our tourism strategy and promotion has not been aggressive enough in order to unlock the tourism potential in the province. Very few people know that more than two-third of the Kruger National Park is in our province, and the bigger part of Waterberg district has been declared a biosphere by UNESCO, whilst Zoutpansberg is in the process of being declared a biosphere reserve.

Programme Director

We have given an example of one the MECs in the province who grew up without interaction with the tourism industry. This would obviously hold true for many black South Africans, particularly in this province. Tourism has historically been perceived to be a preserve for white people.

Every one of us is aware of both the legislative and policy imperatives in terms of BEE. We hold a firm view that this industry is also bound to South Africanise in order to do the right thing i.e. bringing on board the historically disadvantaged groupings.

We are acutely aware that these groupings will naturally not have the requisite skills relevant to this industry. There should be a deliberate effort to ensure that these skills are developed in order to meet the challenges of our day and time.

Government is in the process of commercialising the 54 nature reserves, which we have in the province. Our people should take advantage of these opportunities, which can then be used as an entry point into this industry. We take it that the commercialisation process is going to be rejuvenating and revitalising the potential of these game reserves and thus providing the possibility for the broad based BEE and employment opportunities for our people.

Programme director

There is a talk about the appropriate location and seat of the Pan African Parliament. Without putting the cart before the horse we are unable to see any appropriate location and seat of this parliament except Limpopo. We have given an elaborate account of what happened in the historic Mapungubwe metropole and how this province has historically been a gateway to the whole of Africa and the world. It is therefore difficult to comprehend how this generation of leaders can simply neglect and ignore this historic fact.

For now we will at this stage leave everything to our forbearers and ancestors to judge, because we have argued that it will never be correct for our development to follow the colonial patterns. These colonisers worked very hard to destroy both our history and heritage. In this regard the provincial government is working on a package, which will include a bid for the seat of the Pan African Parliament, the building of the International Convention Centre and the development of our 3 airports i.e. Polokwane International, Hoedspruit and Phalaborwa.

We hope that this preliminary work will be concluded in good time to provide the possibility for its inclusion in Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.

We are the gateway to Africa. Our development plan should reflect this reality.

Let us leave here more inspired and consider ourselves fortunate that we call this province home, and equally lucky that we have been called upon by history to make a contribution to her well being in various capacities in which we serve. For it is this work, which we do, which will continue to strengthen and galvanise the foundation, which we are building for the coming generations.

Let us go out there to work very hard in order to reach this goal of human fulfilment. For it is within reach, possible can and should be done.

Good luck!

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
7 September 2004

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