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Solidarity and AfriForum will be in the North Gauteng High Court tomorrow for the hearing of their case against the Department of Tourism and its Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane. This follows after these two institutions were forced to institute legal action because even after talks the minister still refuses to make the fund available to all tourism businesses. 

To drive transformation and other racial ideologies in the midst of a pandemic that has devastated an industry shows indifference to the need of the very sector the Minister of Tourism has been tasked to support. Right now, entrepreneurs and employees in this industry really need the government’s support, but – as usual – the government chooses to put its own agenda above the needs of its citizens,” says Anton van der Bijl, head of Legal Matters at Solidarity.

According to Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s campaigns manager, it is immoral to exploit a pandemic to promote transformation. “With this fund, the state wants to effectively give money to black entrepreneurs to buy businesses. Obviously, there will be many tourism businesses up for sale as a result of the financial impact of the lockdown measures. It is a fowl blow from the government not to assist these businesses financially, but to exploit them even more.”

Issued by Solidarity and AfriForum