National Council of Province, 6 June 2000
Opening Parliament this year, President Thabo said in his State of Nation address:
"At no other point in time have we ever been placed as we are today to take decisive forward steps towards the creation of a humane and people-centered society ... today the nations of our common universe are confident that out of South Africa will emerge a thing of value that will contribute to the building of a more humane world"
Making the dream of a better life for all a reality is everybody's responsibility.
Growing and using tourism to achieve this dream is everybody's business.
And protecting and conserving the environment in the process is the challenge that faces us as a nation.
From offering a simple smile of welcome and friendly service to guiding a tourist through our beautiful land, we can all contribute by sharing our ancient and unique diversity of culture and heritage.
The hopes and expectations of the world is on the southern tip of Africa, as a leader in the developing world, to set an example for nation building and share our experience in showing the way towards creating a better world for all in the new millennium.
The responsibility on us is indeed great, but we have shown that we can take up the challenges to create a better life for our people and be proud of doing so.
Even more exciting is the fact that in the process of creating jobs and alleviating poverty through tourism development, we can also showcase best practices for environmental management in our country, our region and in Africa.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has committed itself over the next year to work for a better life by growing tourism and enhancing environmental quality and conservation, and thereby developing the people and heritage of our land, for the benefit of all.
The Department's plans have been aligned to ensure delivery in four key focus areas. These plans aim to:
TOURISM GROWTH
Opening Parliament this year, President Mbeki told the nation that:
"Consistent with the decisions taken at the Job Summit, both public and private sectors have committed the necessary funds for the promotion of the tourism sector, commonly accepted as potentially the most important sectors with regard to job creation. Work has therefore begun to vigorously promote the growth of this sector. "
Tourism has been significantly boosted through an ambitious international marketing campaign launched in major international markets.
An additional allocation of R100 million to marketing this year will allow this campaign to be rolled out in a number of emerging markets in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America.
Satour will continue to consolidate market share in key source markets (the United Kingdom and Germany and grow markets in the United States, the Netherlands, France and Italy by 10%, while increasing tourism arrivals by 20% from the "growth" markets. It will promote responsible tourism by targeting high yield tourists rather than generating high numbers that will negatively affect eco-tourism based destinations.
At the same time Satour is being restructured and a new board was appointed to consolidate the partnership approach with the private sector, and to improve coordination of the marketing campaign. The reorganisation at Head Office will be completed by June 2000. The restructure of the International offices will commence in July 2000 to be completed by March 2001. This process will be further informed by the segmentation study of the priority international markets.
Government and the private sector will continue with the Welcome campaign to highlight the important role that all South Africans play in tourism, and to improve the quality and service of the industry.
Partnerships between government, the private sector and civil society is the basis for our joint success and to quote President Mbeki from his State of the Nation address: "I would like to take this opportunity once more, to emphasise the importance we attach to the strategic objective of building the partnership between the public and private sectors".
The partnership between the public and private sector resulted last year in the biggest budget (R160 million) for international marketing that our country has ever seen. The challenge in the coming year is take the marketing campaign to our emerging markets and to put in place the elements needed to welcome these new tourists to South Africa and provide them with an experience which will make them come back for more.
One of the biggest challenges that we face in the tourism sector is the need for black economic empowerment. The ownership patterns in this industry are particularly skewed. Too few black people are involved in senior managerial positions. Too few black people are registered as tour guides. And even fewer black people are owners of tourism enterprises. It is therefore not surprising that so few black South Africans are tourists in their own country.
This is a state of affairs that needs urgent and concentrated attention.
To quote again from President Mbeki:
"The elimination of poverty remains one of the central objectives of the Government and the country. Our activities will also continue to focus on the important issue of the deracialisation of our economy and therefore the encouragement of black economic empowerment."
During the recent Tourism Indaba 2000 in Durban, the striking absence of black members of the tourism business was noted at the MINMEC held on the 16 May. Because of the seriousness of the matte, we have decided to devote the next meeting of MINMEC to the single issue of the involvement of black South Africans in our tourism industry.
There are many opportunities coming up for investment.
The South African National Parks has now placed 12 of its lodge sites on the market for proposals from prospective private operators. Nine of these sites are in Kruger National Park. As part of the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative we will be placing a string of investment 16 sites in the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park on the market.
I take this opportunity to encourage members of the disadvantaged communities to respond to these business opportunities. May I quote from the SANP advertisement which appeared in this past weekends papers: "In order to reinforce its capacity to conserve South Africa's natural wildlife heritage, SANP is launching a programme of partnerships with private sector investors. Under this programme, investors will be allowed to develop new private game lodges within the National Parks, or take over specified existing facilities and upgrade them to international standards.
"The first phase of this programme consists of 13 opportunities in Kruger, Addo Elephant, Golden Gate and Kalahari Gemsbok national parks. The vehicle for private sector involvement will be via long-term concession contracts. At this first stage, SANP is inviting expressions of interest from conservation-minded investors with appropriate eco-tourism experience ... South African previously disadvantaged groups are encouraged to participate in this process".
In February this year, government and the Business Trust jointly launched the Learnership training programme. The aim of the programme is to train 15,000 people over four years in all aspects of the hospitality industry. An amount of R115m has been budgeted for, of which the Business Trust will contribute R80m and government, through the Department of Labour has contributed R35m.
In order to facilitate the establishment of small and medium emerging enterprises, the Business Trust has also earmarked a further R75m for an enterprise development programme. This will provide invaluable, and much needed, technical support to aspirant emerging entrepreneurs and therefore deserves our support.
The Tour Guides Bill, which has now been tabled with the NCOP, once enacted will allow for greater representivity in the tour guide fraternity.
These are but a few measures. There is little doubt in my mind that the issue of black economic empowerment will have to be kept high up on our agenda for the foreseeable future.
South Africa's coastline with coastal and ocean related economic activity must be managed and regulated in a manner which contributes to the empowerment of disadvantaged communities. In regard to the fishing industry I would like to quote my recent speech in the National Assembly:
MARINE AND COASTAL MANAGEMENT
South Africa's fishing industry will also receive special attention this year. This R2,5bn industry, which provides 25 000 direct jobs and probably 60 000 indirect and casual jobs with an additional 750,000 recreational fishers, has an urgent need for stability, certainty and transparency. On the occasion of this debate we announce the following as the way forward:
CO-OPERATION WITH PROVINCES
May I take this opportunity to report on the matters related to co-operative governance.
The MINMEC on Tourism and the MINMEC on Environment have met on a regular basis over the past year with a good attendance from the MECs. The atmosphere at these meetings has always been very constructive. I would like to express my gratitude to all nine provinces for the excellent manner in which we continue to work and for the support I have received.
In an unprecedented development the provinces decided to agree to the removal of the provincial appointees to the board of Satour. This enabled the appointment of a board, which reflects the public-private-partnership we have built in tourism.
Other areas of co-operation have been in conservation:
The Eastern Cape has consented to the transfer of the Woody Cape Nature Reserve to SANP as part of the Greater Addo National Park project. Discussion is now underway about the establishment of a Wild Coast National Park in Pondoland with the Mkambati provincial reserve as its core.
The Northern Province has transferred the farm Greefswald - on which the ruins of the great ancient city of Mapungubwe are situated - to SANP as part of Vhembe/Dongola National Park project.
The Free State is presently considering the incorporation of the Qwa-Qwa National Park (which is actually a provincial park) into the Golden Gate National Park. This will add more value to the Maluti Drakensberg Transfrontier Park, which we hope will become our next World Heritage Site. This project is an example of provincial and regional co-operation as it brings KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Lesotho together in a common plan for tourism development and conservation.
In North West, we are collaborating on the Madikwe Tourism Corridor. This co-operation extends into the Northern Cape where we have established four tourism projects using Poverty Alleviation Funds.
With Gauteng we celebrated Sterkfontein, the 'cradle of humankind', getting World Heritage Site status and look forward to co-operating on creating this into a world-class educational and information site that will attract visitors from across the globe.
The above follows on the successful establishment of the Cape Peninsula National Park a few years ago. We hope that with the strategic planning we are doing on the Cape Floristic Kingdom, that spectacular park that form a natural spine running through an urban area will also be given World Heritage Site status.
We also appreciate the enthusiastic support we have received from the province in maintaining the 17 Ramsar wetlands of international importance. The conservation of these intricate water systems secures the natural heritage of our land.
In conclusion I would like to say a few words about waste management, a matter that the Deputy Minister will elaborate on.
Litter and poor waste management constitutes a major social evil of our time. Rubbish and filth subtracts from the quality of all lives, especially the poor. It denies us a sense of pride in our country and in ourselves. It says to the young and impressionable children of South Africa that it's OK to have a "don't care" attitude.
The NCOP, as an institution bringing together all three spheres of government, can make a very special contribution to the war on waste. Madam Chairperson, I call on you to raise the banner and join in this fight so that we all live a life of dignity.