Less talk. More action. Quicker reaction.

This is basically what the private sector seeks from government regarding all barriers to tourism growth. Not least of which was the energy crisis, which was impacting heavily on the sector, said CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa.

Tshivhengwa, along with other business and government sector players who form part of the Public-Private Growth Initiative, met with the Minister of Public Enterprises earlier this week to highlight concerns about the national energy crisis and the interventions needed to protect businesses from the impact of power cuts.

Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, highlighted yesterday (Tuesday, February 14) during a parliamentary debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent State of the Nation Address – during which the President declared a State of Disaster on the energy crisis – that South Africa had had 167 days of power cuts since September 2022.

Tshivhengwa told Tourism Update that the TBCSA had highlighted that there needed to be greater clarity on what the State of Disaster entailed so that tourism and trade partners and investors could interpret it correctly.

“The last State of Disaster dealt with stringent regulations around COVID and therefore the association for some could be panic with potential negative consequences to forward bookings and investments,” he said.

Winde also called for clarity on the regulations that will govern this emergency response.

Diesel rebates and job protection

Tshivhengwa further highlighted that the tourism sector – already hard hit by the negative impacts of COVID-19 – also now faced additional costs of investing in, and running, generators and other alternative energy sources to ensure an uninterrupted power supply for their guests.

“Yes, the industry had a strong festive season and there are signs of recovery. But there is still a backlog of losses that need to be recouped,” he said, calling for either a diesel rebate or a fuel levy exemption for the tourism industry to help it keep the lights on.

“We also still need to protect industries, like the tourism sector, who drive job creation.”

Lastly, he said, while there was still a need for load shedding, there had to be a level of predictability of when the outages would occur, for business owners, especially smaller businesses, to be able to plan ahead.