Today, during Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Tourism, it was revealed that the Department of Tourism has failed to implement R53 million worth of projects associated with the Social Responsibility Implementation (SRI) programme, an Expanded Public Works Program with the objective of poverty alleviation and job creation through tourism. 

This is essentially a lost opportunity to create jobs for South Africans. If implemented successfully we could have had R53 million worth of job creating projects.

In committee, I pointed out that, with the failure of so many projects, the Department has failed to develop tourism infrastructure in rural communities that would advance job creation for many unemployed.
 
According to the report submitted to Parliament, a substantial number of projects have been placed on hold as a result of poor management from project implementers who are under forensic review.
 
During oversights visits to by the members of the committee in the fourth Parliament to various SRI projects around the country, it was found that most of the projects visited –
 

• Ran behind schedule and were far from completion;
• Exhibited poor workmanship;
• Suffered from poor architectural design, project management capacity and support within municipalities;
• Had no sustainability or operational plans for funded projects;
• Had reports of corrupt activities on some sites;
• Showed no evidence of communication between officials and communities who were beneficiaries of said projects, especially when projects were stopped.

   
Signs that matters were not going according to plan were visible as early as 2011 when the National Department of Tourism commissioned an audit of four EPWP projects which were identified as being subject to corruption. 

To date, the results of this audit have never been made to known to Parliament nor is it clear if any action has been taken against corrupt officials.
 
The Department must act swiftly to table a turnaround plan to the committee. I have write to the Minister suggesting that the department:
 

• Reviews business plans associated with SRI projects and ensures that they are comprehensive enough to address business operations, marketing and sustainability;
• Reviews the funding model of SRI projects from many small projects which the department is unable to monitor and implement to rather focus on a select number of high impact projects;
• Considers the appointment of Project Implementers to improve oversight;
• Furnishes Parliament with both progress and forensic reports of SRI projects;

   
The Department must act with haste to ensure it delivers on its mandate to deliver jobs in tourism especially in rural communities.

Issued by the DA