South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, has been denied leave to appeal against a lower court ruling that he lied under oath in the Fireblade Aviation operation. In this court battle, a case was laid by billionaire businessman Nicky Oppenheimer and ANC politician-turned-businessman Manne Dipico, who told Parliament that Gigaba had lied to the institution when he insisted that he never gave the company approval to operate a private terminal at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport.
This means that Gigaba has no further avenues in the courts to try and vindicate himself; he has exhausted all his legal remedies. The SA Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, has recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa take disciplinary action against Gigaba, which in effect could lead to him either having to resign, or be dismissed.
The tourism industry has responded with relief. “He is the person responsible for the tourism decline from our key source markets with his ill-conceived visa regulations,” says James Vos, Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister of Tourism. “He was warned from the start that these regulations would hurt the industry and cause drops in arrivals because of the superfluous unabridged birth certificate (UBC) requirement, and also the ludicrous in-person application process. He simply went ahead without following the advice of the industry. He has lost all credibility and should resign or be fired, so that we can start rebuilding our tourism brand and implement systems that will take tourism forward. We need regulations that will make it easier for tourists to apply online by way of electronic visas.”
DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Haniff Hoosen, agrees: “Gigaba has caused immense damage to the tourism industry, and it will take years to rebuild the image of our country, and send out the correct message to the world that SA is accessible and a destination worth putting on the visitor bucket list. The DA firmly believes that dismissing Gigaba will be the best course of action for the country, and for the tourism industry.
