The Department of Tourism has handed the buck to the Department of Transport for the issues being skilled by tour operators in renewing or acquiring new vacationer vehicle working licences from the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR).
While Seapei Lebele, performing chief director of communications at the Department of Tourism, acknowledged that the issue is a critical problem that’s negatively impacting the tourism sector – she denied that the sector has not acquired help from the division.
Read: Government ignores tourism trade’s plea for help
“The department has had a number of engagements with the Department of Transport, and with the sector broadly, on challenges with the NPTR,” she mentioned.
“The department routinely engages departments, whose mandates impact tourism, on various matters with the ultimate objective of supporting the growth of the sector and its contribution to the economy.”
Moneyweb emailed an inventory of inquiries to the Department of Transport on 22 June however has not but acquired a response.
Operators ‘prevented’ from getting licences
The SA Tourism Services Association (Satsa) claimed final month the NPTR is stopping tour operators from renewing or acquiring new vacationer vehicle working licences.
It mentioned that is negatively impacting tons of of tour operator autos and inflicting extreme financial and reputational harm to the tourism trade, moreover inhibiting progress and job creation inside small, medium and enormous enterprises (SMMEs).
Satsa additional claimed there was a promise to void the issuing of route descriptions/radius of operation for tour operators as a result of it’s inappropriate for tour operator autos however to this point this had not occurred.
It mentioned this promise was repeated and captured in the minutes of a gathering between the departments of tourism and transport, the NPTR and Satsa in September 2017.
And that it was once more agreed upon in December 2018 throughout a gathering between Director-General of Tourism Victor Tharage, Acting Director-General of Transport Chris Hlabisa, the Tourism Business Council and Satsa.
However Lebele mentioned the conferences referred to by Satsa contradict the assertion that “nothing has been done”.
They are an instance of the Department of Tourism’s intervention to facilitate a direct engagement between Satsa and the Department of Transport, she mentioned.
Where does the buck cease?
Lebele careworn that as a lot as the Department of Tourism facilitates the engagements to make sure that considerations are mentioned intimately and views understood from either side, the mandate for tour working licensing “lies outside the Department of Tourism”.
“The Department of Tourism cannot in effect ‘implement’ another department’s mandate though we will – and have consistently – helped the relevant department understand the tourism perspective as appropriate and motivate for tourism needs to be accommodated in their policies and processes,” she mentioned.
Lebele mentioned each short- and long-term options have been recognized throughout the engagements with the Department of Transport.
“One of the long-term issues [is] the amendment of some aspects of the legislation, which the Department of Transport is best placed to elaborate on,” she mentioned.
Satsa final month additionally claimed Tourism Director-General Tharage has executed nothing for 5 years to attempt to resolve the points tour operators have with the regulator.
Lebele careworn that Tharage has maintained concentrate on the NPTR challenges and has utilised numerous approaches to deal with it, together with the National Tourism Stakeholder Forum (NTSF), which he – Tharage – personally chairs.
Ten engagements
She added that since the emergence of challenges with the implementation of the NPTR, the Department of Tourism has intervened and supplied an inventory of 10 engagements it had between November 2018 and September 2020 in an try to resolve the points.
These included:
-
5 December 2018: A gathering between the departments of tourism and transport at which the deputy ministers of each departments and tourism officers acquired a briefing and dialogue passed off on challenges with the NPTR course of, together with the processing backlog.
-
10 December 2018: A follow-up assembly between the departments of tourism and transport at which the deputy minister of transport, and NPTR and tourism officers have been a part of detailed dialogue on the processing of the backlog, carried out a working web site go to to the NPTR places of work and had engagements with the entire NPTR staff on tourism considerations.
-
10 December 2019: The director-general of Tourism despatched a letter to the director-general of Transport proposing an amnesty for vacationer licensing and requesting an replace on the appointment of the new NPTR.
The Department of Tourism mentioned the end result of those interventions included:
-
Acknowledgement by the Department of Transport of the existence of challenges.
-
An improved frequent understanding of the wants of the tourism sector due to the NPTR board engagements.
-
The facilitation of help for particular person tour operator corporations that referred their issues after attending the NPTR board periods in numerous provinces.
-
The Department of Transport on 20 December 2020 gazetting an extension till 31 August 2021 to the validity interval of vacationer working licences and accreditation certificates that had expired throughout the interval 26 March 2020 to twenty-eight February 2021.
‘Inconceivable’
Satsa deputy chair Oupa Pilane mentioned on Tuesday the Department of Tourism, as Satsa’s line division, ought to perceive the seriousness and significance of fixing this downside greater than another division.
“It is inconceivable the matter has been on the division’s agenda for 5 years and it’s nonetheless not resolved.
“We expect the Department of Tourism to be at the centre of finding solutions to this problem and not just facilitate meetings, [which] is something we can do ourselves,” mentioned Pilane.
“As part of government, they cannot absolve themselves from the systematic failures of their sister department, however frustrating the situation might be,” he mentioned.
Pilane careworn that the issues being skilled by tour operators with the NPTR are usually not merely a priority for Satsa and its members however instantly influence the whole tourism sector, most importantly younger and rising tourism entrepreneurs who’re doing their utmost to outlive and create jobs.
“More than this, it undermines the whole trade’s skill to signify the greatest our nation has to supply vacationers.
“As Satsa, we cannot rest until this matter is resolved,” he mentioned.
