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The civil rights organisation AfriForum has demanded answers from the Department of Tourism regarding the government’s latest plans to discriminate against minorities. This follows after the department and the National Empowerment Fund launched a new fund to help bring about transformation in the tourism sector. 

This fund will provide financial assistance to black entrepreneurs who want to invest in the tourism sector. According to the department, the fund aims to accelerate transformation in a direct way and establish a new generation of black-owned enterprises in this sector.

AfriForum has submitted a public access to information application (PAIA) to the department to determine how the criteria for applications have been decided.

“It is outrageous to use race as a criterion to determine who will be financially assisted by the fund. It is also in direct conflict with the Constitution’s provisions regarding non-racialism,” says Jacques Broodryk, campaign manager at AfriForum. 

AfriForum and Solidarity already achieved a victory in September when the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein ruled that the criteria of the Department of Tourism’s aid fund were unconstitutional. Read the statement here.

Issued by AfriForum