Worldwide the promotion of tourism requires conditions that are respectful of law and order and that promise safety and security when accessing sites and attractions. Yet the commissar for Tourism, Sihle Zikalala, prioritises racial and gender representativity ahead of such considerations (Mercury, May 8).
Thanks to the ANC’s inability to curb and prosecute crime, KZN is under siege: Land grabs, rock-throwing from bridges, sabotage and looting at the Mooi River toll, mobs that arbitrarily shut down construction sites, a stadium that is trashed, violent murders that occur daily, the most dangerous roads in the country with 111 people killed during the Easter recess. Such circumstances do not promote tourism.
On top of that, the majority of municipalities, on which tourism depends for basic services, are bankrupt, corrupt and embroiled in looting exchanges between different factions of the ANC, some of which we now know are even uneducated.
Tourism can thrive only in an environment that is secure and stable. The fact that Zikalala ignores those issues and instead obsesses about racial and gender quotas shows how out of touch he is with the realities of the tourist and hospitality industry. But then that is hardly surprising given the shambles that prevails in every aspect of governance under the ANC.
Sent into The Mercury and published, May 9, 2018.
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