12 February 1999

Virtually every sector of society regards Tourism, because of its ability to generate foreign earnings and to create jobs, as vitally important to our country’s future. The World Tourism Organisation reports that during 1998, Tourism accounted for more than US$444.7 billion. World Tourism grew by 2 .4 %. This represented a drop of one percent from the 1997 figure of 3.7%.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is determined to see tourism make an even greater contribution to South Africa, and to the well-being of its people.

According to a recent survey done by the World Tourism Organisation's (WTO) South Africa ranks 25th among the top 40 tourism destinations in the world. In 1990 this country ranked 55th. South Africa has emerged as Africa’s leading tourist destination, having outstripped Egypt, ranked 34th; Tunisia, ranked 29th; and Morocco, ranked 38th.

According to that same WTO’s report South Africa is amongst 7 countries that have experienced the largest increases in tourism arrivals, with a growth rate of 10% and above over the last three years. In terms of annual growth South Africa experienced 3 098 183 tourism arrivals in 1993. In 1994 the figure increased to 3 668 956 (18% growth); 4 488 272 in 1995 (22.3% growth); 4 944 430 in 1996 (10.2% growth); 5 436 848 in 1997 (10.0% growth) and in 1998 5 981 000 arrivals (10% growth). Though our own statistics for 1998 are as yet incomplete, tourist arrivals for the period January to July 1998 reflected an increase of 3.8% over the same period in 1997. The number of tourists from Africa increased by 7.5%. 74% of total tourism arrivals for the same period were from Africa. There was a significant increase of 16.8% in tourism arrivals from North America, including Canada. Arrivals from the Middle East increased by 3.3% and from Australasia by 0.4%.

In the past 3 years tourism has created 187 170 new jobs across the South African economy. Today's travel and tourism economy represents 737 600 jobs which is 7% of total employment in South Africa. In 1998 tourism’s contribution to the GDP (gross domestic product) was 8.2%% that represents 53,2 billion rand of the total GDP and the country’s tourism sector is well on track to realise its target of 10.3% contribution to the GDP by 2010

At the Minister’s Tourism summit, held at Gallagher Estates in the first week of December 1999, we launched a new public/private partnership (based on international best practices) for the international marketing of South Africa. Private sector expertise has been directed into the new SATOUR Marketing Committee. Although the position of Head of Marketing Services at SATOUR still has to be filled, the TBCSA has been invited to assist in head-hunting an appropriate candidate. The SATOUR Marketing Committee, comprising of 5 nominees from the private sector, plus 5 nominees from SATOUR has begun operations. The CEO of SATOUR and Executive Director of the TBCSA serve on this body as ex-officio members.

Inadequate funding was identified as one of the chief constraints on Tourism development in South Africa. We are confident that this is now being addressed through the partnership we have secured with the Private sector. We expect the total funding for the international marketing of SA for 1999 will be in the region of R150 million . This will be made up as follows:

From the Department – R50 million will be made available (for the next 3 years) for above the line marketing.

The National Business Trust –will contribute another R50 million . These funds will concentrate on two areas Education and Job Creation. The Board of the Business Trust will be formed comprising 12 private sector leaders and 8 government ministers including the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Mechanisms to evaluate proposals in the form of Review committees are in place. A joint TBCSA / SATOUR / DEAT proposal on marketing is being made today (11th February 1999). It will be the responsibility of the new SATOUR Marketing Committee to develop specific proposals of how and where monies are to be expended – including market segmentation analysis.

Although marketing budget may be spent at a national level, training and skills and enterprise support monies will be spent on projects within provinces.

A voluntary levy system among members of the TBCSA is expected to raise R50 million. The voluntary TBCSA levy will replace the old bed levy paid to SATOUR in the past.

Our Ministerial Tourism Summit also spawned the idea of a Tourism Forum – a high level think tank among national government, labour, Community based organisations and senior private sector leaders. This body will provide policy guidance and direction to various tourism bodies (e.g. SATOUR's Marketing Committee, SETA, etc)The Tourism Forum will be chaired by either the Minister or Deputy Minister and will comprise: 8 representatives from the tourism private sector; and a delegation of 8 from government, COSATU, SANCO, and SATOUR. The inaugural meeting of the Tourism Forum takes place on 15 February

We completed the restructuring of SATOUR (South African Tourism Board) during 1998. SATOUR has been relaunched, with a new logo at the Tourism Summit of 7 December 1998.

Current estimates are that more that 730,000 South Africans are directly employed in tourism. The department’s tourism development strategy for the period 1999 - 2000 aims to increase this number to 860 000 by the year 2000. We are currently working with a consultancy to segment and thus gain a better understanding of our source market. so as to maximise the actual contribution tourism makes to job creation and foreign exchange earnings in South Africa. Considering that in our second largest source market, Germany, tourists travelling to South Africa constitute a tiny 0.3% of German tourists and travellers, the potential for growth, is enormous.

International experts have noted South Africa’s performance over the last few years and concur that we can do a lot better.

Tourism Training and Skills Development: In co-operation with the Spanish Agency for International Co-operation, the investigation into the creation of a Southern African Training Institute (SATI) has been completed. The objectives of SATI would be to : improve the competitiveness of the tourism sector by the training of human resources which respond to the needs of the industry; promote access to training on the part of the population, particularly the least favoured groups of our population, by offering flexible training which applies innovative methods and systems; facilitate occupational integration into the tourism sector of persons seeking employment; and contribute to the improvement of the quality of teaching by the centres specialising in tourism training. Donor funding would be sought to initiate the creation of SATI.

South Africa is now ranked 25th in the WTO’s listing of the world's top 40 tourism destinations as compared to it's ranking of 55th in 1990. This means that South Africa has emerged as Africa’s leading tourist destination.

According to the WTO’s latest report South Africa is amongst the 7 countries with the largest increases in tourism with a 10% growth over the last three years. In terms of annual growth South Africa experienced 3 098 183 tourism arrivals in

The Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative is an exciting effort by the governments of South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland to attract private sector investment to tourism projects in the Lubombo region – which stretches across the borders of all three countries. The SDI process shows how conservation and tourism can fast track economic development – across political boundaries.

The SDI’s anchor project is the establishment of the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park Authority and its application to become on of South Africa’s first World Heritage listings. This process is well underway. Declared a provincial lead project at last years Presidential Job Summit, the St. Lucia project will create jobs through increased tourism, it will also expend and protect one of the nations great wild life areas.

The SDI has 150 other – community driven – tourism and agriculture investment projects. Local and international investors have already indicated that they are very keen to put money into these projects. The SDI is clearing the way for these investments to go ahead. It has facilitated the upgrading of roads and rail linkages through the region to improve transport routes for tourists and local communities. The SDI is securing trans-national agreements between partner countries for a joint malaria control programme, the easing of travel requirements for tourists and the development of legal frameworks that allow for the management of cross border land and marine conservation areas.

Crime against tourists in our country is a big threat to the tourism industry, and it has the potential to cripple opportunities that are there for the nation with regards to economic growth and the creation of jobs.

The department has established the Tourism Safety Task Group (TSTG) to ensure that through co-ordination of efforts, tourists are safe. The TSTG alone can not win the battle. It needs the support and dedication of other stakeholders. The main role player in this regard is the SAPS. The department is committed through the TSTG to working together with the SAPS to address this problem effectively.

The objectives of the TSTG are:

• To prevent crime against tourist.
• To manage crime against tourists.
• To improve the image of South Africa.

Provincial TSTG’s were established in 1998 to ensure that visitors are safe when they go to provinces. Members of these structures include: SAPS, Local government, Business Against Crime, Victim empowerment structures, the youth.

The TSTG work hand with the Victim Empowerment Committee to ensure that tourists who fall victims of crime in our country do get counselling and are helped to go through the ordeal.

Negotiations are still going on between the department and the Department of Safety and Security with regards to integrating the efforts of TSTG with the National Crime Prevention Strategy. The aim is to plan together and beef-up security measures, instead of duplicating initiatives and addressing the problem through efforts that are fragmented.

Some provincial TSTG’s embarked on Tourism Safety Awareness campaigns during the festive season. The youth were trained and deployed to areas mostly visited by tourists. The aim was to educate the youth and communities about the importance of tourism in our country, and to address the problem of crime against tourists. This contributed towards the reduction of reports on cases of crime against tourists during the festive season.

There is a need also for journalists to be informed and educated about what tourism is all about and how important it is to the economic growth of our country. Therefore, there were meetings with journalists last year from some of the newspapers, to indicate as well to them that, imbalanced reporting of incidents of crime against tourists by themselves cripples opportunities that are there for our country in as far as tourism is concerned.

Tourism Safety in our country is a big threat to the industry and it has to be addressed effectively. It is therefore important that all sectors of the society join hands.

The department commenced with the formidable task of transforming and restructuring the fishing industry by the enactment of the Marine Living Resources Act 1998. The guiding principle of the Act is that all the natural marine living resources of South Africa, as well as the environment in which they exist, are a national asset and the heritage of all South Africa’s people which must be managed and developed for the benefit of present and future generations. A Consultative Advisory Forum and the Fisheries Transformation Council (as provided for in the Act) have been appointed with the overarching responsibility of transforming our fishery industry; opening access to the historically disadvantaged sectors of our society; and the development and capacity building of small, medium and micro enterprises. In this way equity in the industry will be realised.

The transformation and restructuring that is underway in South Africa’s fishing industry seeks to accommodate a broader vision and mission for Sea Fisheries than before. The new direction will be accompanied by a name change, from Sea Fisheries to Marine and Coastal Management as well as a rearrangement and integration of sub-components to achieve better and wider service delivery.

On September 1, 1998 the new Marine Living Resources Act became operational. The Act provides for the establishment of two institutional structures, the Consultative Advisory Forum (CAF) and the Fisheries Transformation Council (FTC).

This Forum advises me on matters pertaining to the management and development of the fishing industry. This includes issues relating to Total Allowable Catches (subsistence, recreational, commercial), the management of marine living resources and related legislation; recommendations and directives on areas of research, the establishment and amendment of operational procedures, including management plans; and the allocation of money from the Marine Living Resource Fund.

FTC:

Transformation of the marine fisheries sector is the principal purpose of the Act. The Fisheries Transformation Council is charged with the task of leasing rights to persons from the historically disadvantaged sectors of society and to small and medium sized enterprises. The FTC is beginning to address the issues of equity in the industry. We all know of the historical imbalances that have caused unequal access to the resources in the fishing industry. If we are to achieve economic growth, human resource development, job creation and a sound ecological balance, the restructuring of the industry is imperative.

The transformation strategy of the fishing industry has the following thrusts:

• Vigorous encouragement of the large fishing companies to broaden participation through equity sharing (e.g. the taking on board of various empowerment groups by companies like I&J, Sea harvest, Oceania, Premier etc)and empowerment of workers coupled with sound labour relations
• Broadening participation in lucrative fisheries such as hake by focusing more on the use of affordable methods like long line. All the 4400 tons set aside for the hake long line fishery in 1998 was leased by the FTC to persons from the previously disadvantaged sectors of society and to small and medium size enterprises. For the 1999 season, 10 000 tons will be leased by the FTC.
• Strengthening of the small and medium sectors in the industry by allocating more of the inshore resources to small scale and artisinal fishers. For example, squid, abalone, rock lobster etc.

1 For the first time all recreational fishers have to purchase a permit, a development designed to improve resources to manage the sector.

2 The pilot programme that I initiated last year for subsistence fishers has been formalised by the setting aside part of the TAC for subsistence fishing. Implementation is expected in the weeks ahead.

The operationalisation of the Act enabled me to open the squid fishery (which had been closed since the late 1980s) and to allocate more than a quarter/20% of the permits to persons from the previously disadvantaged sectors of society while the percentage of the abalone resource allocated to previously disadvantaged sectors of society was about 90.

For the West Coast Rock Lobster the percentage of the TAC that went to the previously disadvantaged sector rose from 5.1% in 1996 to 8.2% in 1997, and to 16.2% in 1998 and to about 58% in 1999.

The distinction between white and black companies is rapidly becoming blurred in the fisheries, however, such that the figures quoted exclude allocations made to companies that have engaged black empowerment groups, rendering them under-estimates of the true picture.

Whilst admitting persons from the previously disadvantaged sectors of society into the West Coast Rock Lobster industry I declined applications from some previous "quota holders". My admission of new entrants into the West Coast Rock Lobster sector and refusal to accede to applications of some previous "quota holders" has led to my decision being challenged in the high court by previous "quota holders".

The High court challenge is essentially based on the contention that I should not have applied the provisions of the new Act but rather the provisions of the old Act (in the first six months after operationalisation), the application of which would have favoured the previous "quota holders" and in effect meant the exclusion of new entrants. This contention is based upon their interpretation of Section 85 of the new Act.

A further challenge by the group to my decision is that even if they are wrong in their interpretation of section 85 of the new Act, I should have advised them that I was going to apply the provisions of the new Act and afford them an opportunity of making representations why their "quotas" should not be removed or reduced, before I did so. By failing to do so, they argue, they were unfairly treated.

My contention is that the purpose of the new Act constitutes a break with the past in the sense that the restrictions imposed on the Quota Board to admit new entrants into the fishing industry were lifted. The major purpose of the new Act is to promote broader access to marine living resources and permit the participation therein of persons from historically disadvantaged sectors of society as well as small and medium size enterprises.

I remain undaunted in my intention to restructure the fishing industry according to the policy and the legislation, enacted last year.

Our law enforcement efforts continue to be hampered by a lack of sufficient human resources and capacity to match the highly sophisticated & highly organised criminals. Statistics show an encouraging rise in the number of arrests, fines and confiscations on land but this does not mean we are winning the battle as the resources should be protected out at sea.

A Draft White Paper on SA’s Coastal Management Policy will become available for discussion and comments in the first half of 1999.

The Department will then co-ordinate a formal consultative process that will result in submission of the Draft to Cabinet for consideration and approval. Thereafter, if approved, the Draft will be submitted to Parliament. The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee may then choose to run public hearings before formal adoption of the White Paper. Once the White Paper has been approved further attention will be given to legislative requirements. Attention will also be given to other required to implement the approved policy.

A radical and all-encompassing restructuring process of the National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism which was completed in draft format in 1998. The new structure of the department geared towards leading environmental management and tourism into the new millennium will come into being during the first half of 1999. The end result of this process is a fully restructured knowledge organisation, providing user friendly environmental information services to the full spectrum of stakeholders, provincial and local, agencies, NGO’s, CBO’s and all relevant environmental institutions. Key elements of this process include; compliance to service delivery of the highest standards linked to quality improvement; the establishment of synergies between tourism, conservation and heritage development; the linking of marine and coastal management; much greater use of Information management systems, tools and techniques; the rationalisation of knowledge management with greater scientific co-operation and agreements with research organisations, universities, and business. A key objective is the achievement of greater representative at all levels and more specifically in the specialised and scientific units by the beginning of the new millennium.

The national department has commenced on the establishment of a Capacity Building Directorate (CBD) to build the capacity of provinces, local government and eventually NGO’s and CBO’s in all aspects of environmental management. Funding has been secured with governmental agencies of Denmark and Canada. The CBD’s capacity building programmes will be executed in 1999 with an audit report, and database of all service providers, institutions for environmental management which can provide capacity building programmes and a monitoring and evaluation system for the programmes in place.

WORLD HERITAGE SITES: Robben Island together with Sterkfontein and St Lucia Wetland Park have been submitted to UNESCO,S World Heritage Centre for consideration as World Heritage Sites .A decision is expected by December 1999

Since it joined the community of democratic nations, South Africa has produced a number of policies on environmental management, tourism and marine resource management. This process of policy reform has given rise to a process of law reform. The transformation and restructuring process in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism led to the decision towards the end of 1998, to incorporate the different law reform projects in the department in a single programme that covers the entire spectrum of legislation that falls under the Department’s jurisdiction. The DEAT Law Reform Programme (DLRP) attempts to address the constitutional and policy imperatives in respect of environment, tourism and marine resource management in the form of concrete deliverables. The Department has identified the DLRP as a special departmental priority project that extends over a two to three year period from 1999 to 2001.

Environmental law reform constitutes a major component of the DLRP, and ranges from the umbrella framework legislation, i.e. the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), to sectoral legislation. NEMA enables the Ministry to promulgate a range of sectoral and subordinate legislation and allows the Department to carry out its regulatory function in specific areas. This Act further provides an overarching enabling framework under which all other environmental legislation will fall. This Act provides for co-operative governance and a mechanism to co-ordinate all functions relating to management of the environment.

The Tourism White Paper and the preparation of tourism legislation by various provinces have highlighted the need for encompassing national tourism legislation that covers the full spectrum of tourism regulations and addresses the national versus provincial powers and functions, levies and taxes.

One of the objectives of the White paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biological Diversity is that:

• Government will facilitate the development of appropriate legislation to achieve uniform legal coverage for the protection of threatened species and the regulation of trade of all CITES-listed species, in addition to threatened species listed nationally and provincially.
• The Department, in collaboration with the Provinces, has embarked on the development of national legislation addressing this policy objective. The intention is to submit this legislation to Parliament at the earliest opportunity. Other areas of bio-diversity legislation currently in the pipe line include bio-prospecting and access to genetic resources, bio-diversity conservation and wetlands.

The most important and urgent objective for the Weather Bureau is to plan and enable the envisaged new "Statutory Body operating within a parastatal" which was agreed to by cabinet in 1998. As part of the transformation and restructuring process taking place within the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, the new "parastatal Weather Bureau" seeks to address internal transformation and to improve and expand its services to all sections of South Africa. The desirability of the need for an expanded warning service is graphically illustrated by the recent devastating tornadoes in Umtata and Mt Ayliff. Certain clients of the weather services, such as aviation, will be expected to pay for such services and these monies will then be used by the "Weather Agency" to improve their infrastructure and services.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will be geared to lead environmental management and tourism in the interest of sustainable development for all into the new millennium . We will continue on the road of transformation we have embarked on.

I would like to express my appreciation to all employees of my department under the leadership of my Director General, Professor Patrick Fitzgerald who have assisted and continue to do so in making the turnaround possible