MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

NMBT’s Skefile issues response

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Dear MyPE

The purpose of this letter is to correct the Municipality’s misrepresentation as contained in the article published in The Herald, 3rd September : “Municipality wants to pull plug on Bay Tourism Agency “.

Two months ago, a report was tabled at Council motivating for the review of all agencies (NMBT, UDDI and MBDA) – Rationalisation of Municipal Entities. The municipality is legislated by the MFMA from time to time to review the performance of all organizations that it provides financial support to and ensure that they remain strong organs of state that will assist the economic development directorate in carrying out its mandate.

The decision made at yesterday’s standing committee to agree with the recommendations presented by the Executive Director was motivated by the following:

  • To integrate Destination marketing with Trade and Investment promotion together with Film promotion (of which these two portfolios are already being run within the economic development directorate).
  • Through this integration, issues of budget will be addressed. Currently the Municipality, due to its challenges, is unable to provide the full budget requirements of NMBT for destination marketing activities. With the proposed changes, the budget that will be allocated to Tourism will be geared purely towards Destination Marketing activities and not having to take care of overhead expenses.
  • Currently NMBT is not a Municipal entity yet it receives bulk of its funding from the Municipality. This possible absorption will enable the municipality to provide a much closer oversight role to the sub directorate that it will be funding.

The final decision on whether this consideration will be viable or not will be based on the outcomes of the investigations the Municipality will be embarking on. During this process of investigation, full consultation with all stakeholders will be done in the form of interviews, workshops, etc.

Once a decision is made (based on the outcome of the study) to run the tourism operations within the municipality, the Municipality will absorb NMBT into its operations as opposed to setting up a completely new unit. If such a move was a show of no confidence to NMBT, then this consideration would not exist at all.

Yours sincerely
MANDLAKAZI SKEFILE (Ms)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.