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Tourism Ministers poor reply to Charter Boat Industry will kill jobs in coastal provinces

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Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will reach out to the Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, and the Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, to urgently reopen the charter boat industry.

The industry has been left rudderless for more than 100 days and unless these Ministers step in immediately, it will not survive.

More than that, Minister Kubayi-Ngubane may have possibly mislead Parliament when she responded to queries from the DA regarding the safe reopening of the industry, that she had advised the industry in a reply to a letter that it falls under the Department of Transport and that it should contact Minister Mbalula regarding the sector’s reopening. The Minister’s response to the industry can only be read as a mild assurance that she will pursue the reopening of the industry on its behalf.

Minister Kubayi-Ngubane response shows a total lack of care and urgency for people who have been without any income since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown in March, and whose efforts to reopen she commended in the same letter.

She should be held accountable as her actions contribute to the loss of jobs and business in the tourism sector. This is unacceptable. She should be to be the tourism industries’ main champion, but she keeps letting them down.

The Charter Boat Association first wrote to the Tourism Minister on 1 June 2020, making a commitment to 7 key steps to ensure public health and safety in the industry:

  • Boats will be sanitised before and after every trip.
  • Passengers will be required to complete and sign a form of required questions, as well as providing details for contact tracing.
  • Staff and customer to be screened and temperatures taken and recorded on above form before boarding. This will be the responsibility of the designated skipper of each vessel. Anyone who has a high temperature will not be allowed to board the vessel. All forms will be kept for records.
  • Hand sanitising will be required before boarding and hand sanitiser will be made available during the trip.
  • Boats will only be booked out by a group and not filled up on a per person basis.
  • Boat passenger capacity will be cut e.g. a boat licensed for 2 crew and 10 passengers will now take 2 crew and 6 passengers etc. In this way social distancing can easily be maintained.
  • Masks to be worn at all times and social distancing to be maintained.

Over 50 charter boats operate in the Durban area alone, and the Government is putting many people’s livelihoods at risk with its slow and uncaring response. The Minister seems to be mimicking the President as a mere spectator while people’s lives are being destroyed.

Regards

Hlanganani Gumbi MP
DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Tourism

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