THE Portfolio Committee on Tourism welcomed the update it received last week from the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) on progress with the implementation of all the failed tourism infrastructure projects for the Department of Tourism.
The committee also welcomed another briefing from South African Tourism (SAT) on the first and second quarter performance report for the 2022/23 financial year.
The committee was impressed with the DBSA’s work in implementing departmental projects. The DBSA was appointed by the Department of Tourism as its implementing agent, following a memorandum of agreement signed by the department and DBSA on 20 November 2020.
Briefing the committee, the DBSA’s Chuene Ramphele told the committee that the scope of agreement includes, among other things, assisting the department to establish a Project Support Unit (PSU) to implement the tourism infrastructure programme; assist with the conditional assessments and planning for allocated tourism infrastructure; building of new, upgrading and refurbishment of identified or prioritised tourism facilities; and supporting the department to implement a comprehensive facilities maintenance programme.
The projects include local community museums, maintenance and beatification of provincial state-owned attractions, Indi-Atlantic Route (coastal and marine tourism initiatives) and community projects.
On the funding of the projects, the committee heard that the DBSA initially assisted the department to plot every project the department had in terms of the actual costing.
The department committed a total budget of R714 738 324.
The DBSA appointed 14 professional services consortiums and 29 contractors with a committed value of R595 260 million. R2.1 million was spent during the previous financial year and DBSA is hoping to spend an accumulated amount of R5.1 million for the 2023/2024 financial year.
The committee welcomed the clear way in which delays on some projects were explained and urged the DBSA to procure women- and youth-owned companies.
Some of the challenges encountered by the DBSA include a National Treasury moratorium, which affected the procurement timelines, moving them from February to June 2022. In addition, some facilities were more dilapidated than expected, requiring more work than anticipated and difficult access to remote areas where work was to be carried out.
SAT acting CEO, Nomasonto Ndlovu, told the committee that performance in quarter one on various programmes was 65% and increased to 71% in quarter two.
Programmes included corporate support, business enablement, leisure tourism marketing, business events and tourist experience. SAT has several plans in place to overcome underperformance, including that the entity’s three-year integrated destination brand and marketing strategy is finalised and approved by October 2022. The Welcome Programme and Roadmap were approved by the exco on 3 October 2022.
Greater focus will be placed on ensuring that campaign plans are approved in quarter three and stringent measures for tracking the backlog on the Global Advocacy plan have been put in place to attend to the backlog, whilst achieving quarterly obligations.
Ndlovu said an additional resource has been put in place to augment content development and project delivery.
Responding to questions from the committee, on the involvement of townships, small town and villages in tourism, the Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille said the matter is being prioritised.
She indicated that she is currently engaging the South African Township and Village Tourism Association (SATOVITO) that represents all villages and townships.
She said the organisation has assured them “nothing about us, without us”.
The committee also asked Minister de Lille about tourism safety.
In response she said the department is implementing its 2018 safety tourism strategy and plans to convene a quarterly safety forum.
She told the committee that the department has a budget of R174.5 million for tourism monitors, who will obtain an NQ3 level qualification certificate after training. The first batch of these monitors will be deployed to hot-spot areas.
The committee was concerned about SAT’s three-member interim board and its poor attendance at meetings.
The only board member present in the meeting, Zwelibanzi Mntambo, left before the committee could engage with him.
The committee reiterated its view that the current three-member board is out of order, a position vindicated by Section 49 of the Public Finance Management Act, which gives power to the acting CEO to run its affairs in the absence of a board.
The Chairperson read out the legal opinion from Parliament’s legal service on board member Kholeka Zama’s deception, who lied to the committee on two occasions.
The committee also emphasised that the vacant positions at the executive level of South African Tourism should be filled with immediate effect.
The Minister responded by saying that she had recently held a meeting with the board where it was decided that the vacancies should be filled.
This includes the CEO, CFO, chief marketing officer and chief conventions bureau officer, among others.
The Minister has removed a recent moratorium on appointments.
The committee advised that appointment of the CEO and CFO should be delayed until the new board is constituted.
The committee noted that more that R586 million has already been transferred to SAT, amounting to 44% of its total appropriation. The committee then emphasised to the Director-General, Victor Tharage, and the acting SAT CEO, Ndlovu, that no further funds will be transferred to SAT until three conditions imposed by the committee in the conditional appropriation have been met.
The three conditions are: (i) the targets in SAT’s annual performance plan are revised; (ii) vacancies at executive level are filled; and (iii) the delegation of authority by the Board in a letter of 27 April 2023 is reversed and given back to the executives at SAT.
Any transfer of funds to SAT will require an amendment to the budget and that must be approved by the National Assembly.
The Chairperson then warned the Director-General that a transfer without meeting these conditions will amount to a criminal offence on his part.
Image (SAT acting SAT, Sonto Ndlovu has been told by Committee that no more funds will be made available until new board is constituted).
