Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, members of this august House, special delegates from provinces and MECs present here today, I am privileged to, once again, address this House, particularly on this occasion of the policy review debate on Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
The purpose of my address will be to set out some of the key areas, particularly in the field of tourism, that this department will have to grapple with much more seriously, and how this should relate to the broader issues of tourism as a creator of sustainable jobs in the economy and the largest foreign currency earner.
As we emerge from the pariah state that South Africa had become through successive gangster regimes that had blindly defended the morally repugnant system of apartheid, we are now confidently and proudly into the second term of our democratic order, ably led by the glorious army of the majority of the people of this country, the ANC. This has brought with it increased societal awareness of the strategic importance of tourism, although it is not the panacea for all the social ills in our country.
The question should therefore be asked whether we have, indeed, done enough as a nation to unlock the tremendous potential that tourism has for South Africa in relation to the all-important matter of job creation, thus dealing with some of the social ills in our country, particularly the colossal unemployment and abject poverty which I referred to earlier on.
Our ability, therefore, to effectively unlock this potential depends, to a very large extent, on our ability to have a shared patriotism, commitment and a shared vision in terms of how we want to turn this industry into South Africa's single biggest creator of jobs in the economy to benefit the most vulnerable in society, particularly women in rural communities and young people.
This industry must deliberately create an entrepreneurial class of young men and women who must, in turn, contribute to the development of a vibrant SMME sector to provide much-needed jobs for school-leavers and first-time job seekers in the country. It should therefore not be seen as a sole preserve or exclusive domain of the historically advantaged - who still are in this position - and its business and its professional class.
It must be said that the collective minds of those that planned and defended apartheid colonialism for decades in this country must now be used progressively to unlock and promote the tourism industry in South Africa on an unprecedented scale to eliminate poverty and thus create a better life for all. It is through all of us genuinely confronting these realities that we can boldly declare, as young people do, that yesterday is, indeed, a foreign country, and that tomorrow belongs to us all.
Having said that, I must also point out that tourism, as a source of job creation, should be Government's priority in view of the sector's potential for foreign currency earnings and employment, as I indicated earlier on. It must also be borne in mind that it is this sector that has a substantial flow-through effect which touches all sectors of the economy. It has a great potential as a catalyst for future economic and social development throughout our SADC region.
All our people, particularly the majority on whose behalf I speak in this Chamber, must benefit from the much-talked-about ``world's greatest tourist attractions'' which South Africa boasts, with regard to both the natural and the cultural heritage, ranging from game parks and pristine scenery to beaches and traditional villages. We should make it possible for low-income earners to marvel with pride at the beauty of these attractions, while equally engaging the unemployed in this sector, using it as a launching pad for economic development, particularly among rural communities.
Tourism development's major preoccupation should, therefore, be to raise the wellbeing of local communities, to promote mutual understanding in order to achieve peace, to conserve nature and the environment, and to preserve traditions as well as the social and cultural values of our country. The interests of local people must, therefore, be taken care of so that a peaceful atmosphere within which tourism can thrive can then prevail.
If South Africa attracts 0,2% of the annual estimated 300 million tourists in the world - and we rank number 42 when it comes to tourism earners in the world - then we need to do much more in the area of marketing our precious country. We need to have the best marketing strategies, through partnerships with the private sector, so that we can become serious world players in world tourism.
Our ability to achieve all of these things also depends on the capacity of provinces to market their various attractions among local people and to build local economies. Local government, being the confluence of delivery, must then begin to find, in a much more concrete way, innovative strategies for creating a local tourism corps to develop tourism-related products at a local level. In this way we will be able to showcase certain attractions at a local level and bring the richness of the history to tourists and thus effectively create sustainable jobs locally and provide local authorities with much-needed revenue. This tourism corps must also become the first line of defence for tourists against criminal elements in areas where these elements are to be found.
If the number of jobs in the trade, catering and accommodation sectors of the economy grew by 9% last year as a result of growth in tourism and if tourism currently brings an estimated R20 billion a year into the economy, second only to mining and manufacturing in its contribution to the GDP, then with our renewed determination, commitment and energy, we could effectively be in a position to double if not treble the statistics.
As South Africans, we must again do what we are capable of doing, and that is to give tourists a friendly smile when they visit this country. We should stop and talk to them whenever we meet them. We should be positive about our cultures, our country and its future, and be proud of our facilities, keep our environment litter-free and say no to plastic bags. We should also be able to talk about these cultures, our customs and say a big no to crime, and above all, be proud of being South African.
The Minister has touched on a number of critical areas, which I feel I must also comment on, in relation to the whole issue of us as Government creating strategic partnerships with the private sector. A case in point relates to SAA's recent global partnership with Delta airlines which promises to bring an additional 26 000 visitors per year to South Africa. This view was reinforced by the Minister in his most recent address at the Indaba 2000 travel showcase, which this industry holds almost annually, where the Minister spoke of the strategic importance of all of us working as a nation to make South Africa one of the hottest destinations on the globe. If this is the approach of the Minister, there honestly is not even a shade of doubt in my mind that this industry is going through its own renaissance. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr N SINGH (KwaZulu-Natal): Hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, colleagues in the Council, it is a pleasure for me to participate in this policy debate on Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
The hon the Deputy Minister is not only a finger-wagging Deputy Minister, but has also become a fist-wagging Deputy Minister in today's editorial of the Business Day. She must keep it up! [Laughter.] As my colleague Mrs Cronj indicated to the House, I will focus on environmental issues. She has touched on some of the tourism issues. However, I must also state that some of the issues that I am going to touch on have been discussed at Minmec, but I thought it would be wise for me to share some of the information with my colleagues here in this honourable Council of ours.
I do not know if it was an act of omission, and I would like to think that it was so, where, on the last page of the hon the Minister's speech which I have just read, he referred to the celebration which he had with the province of Gauteng with regard to the Sterkfontein caves. I must remind the hon the Minister that we also celebrated the declaration of the Greater St Lucia Wetland park as a World Heritage site with him, and I am sure that it was an omission. We are also looking forward to the declaration of the Drakensberg-Ukhalamba range as having World Heritage status for both the cultural and natural beauty that it offers.
I just want to make a few remarks on tourism. I was delighted to learn, a few days ago, that the Global Environment Facility, via the World Bank, has approved a loan or grant totalling some R15 million which will go towards a project to protect the exceptional biodiversity of the Maluti-Drakensberg mountains through conservation-sustainable resource use and land use, and development planning. I think what is exciting about this particular project, as the hon Minister indicated to us, is that it is not only South Africa and three provinces within South Africa that are involved in this project, but that it also involves the neighbouring country of Lesotho. I am sure that the national department will do everything that it has to do to ensure that we get this particular loan.
My colleague Mrs Cronj spoke about tourism, and others spoke about some of the factors that would negatively influence tourism in our country. However, I would also like for us to remember that poor waste management will also impact negatively on visitors' experiences and, consequently, damage the image that tourism marketing campaigns endeavour to project of South Africa as an international destination. I will be reflecting on waste management later on. However, since this is Environment Week and we celebrated World Environment Day yesterday, I am very pleased that the national department and the Minister and Deputy Minister have taken the opportunity to extend the awareness campaign for ten days, and not only celebrate and make people aware on World Environment Day.
Now, we have various challenges that we face in KwaZulu-Natal, and I thought I would share some of these challenges with hon members. Land fertility is declining. Land degradation is increasing. The rapid growth of urbanisation is causing massive air pollution. Marine fisheries are being overexploited to the point that their ability to quickly recover is in doubt. Wetlands are under considerable pressure as a result of predominantly agricultural and commercial forestry development. When it comes to industrial development, although monitoring seems to indicate that there are no major problems with air quality in areas of complex development, I believe there is considerable public concern about air pollution from industries operating in the province, and I will refer to this a little later as well.
I would like to say to members of this Council, that as the department of environmental affairs in KwaZulu-Natal, we have engaged in various activities over the last few days, some of which have been visits to schools and conducting environmental awareness campaigns - the eradication of alien plants within and outside school premises and the planting of indigenous trees - and the propagation and planting of medicinal plants with traditional healers. We promoted an anti-litter campaign involving local communities and schools. We had live talk shows, and it was a pleasure for me to participate in a talk show with the hon Deputy Minister last night. We have encouraged art competitions aimed at learners and adults, and we offered cash prizes and awarded prizes for the best functional art and best visual art entries using waste materials. So these are just some of the activities that we have engaged in in the province.
Turning to waste management and environmental affairs, I would like to discuss the responsibility that we as provinces have in this sphere of environmental affairs, especially in respect of pollution control. The Constitution provides for the right of the individual to live in a clean and healthy environment. Natural law probably confers the same right on him or her. The Constitution also clearly provides that protection of the environment should be a concurrent responsibility of national and provincial Government. It is a basic responsibility that neither sphere of Government can shirk. We have to decide where the division of responsibilities should lie, which functions of protecting the environment are most effectively provided by which sphere of government, and here I refer to the three spheres of Government that we have. I believe that everything has to mesh at the end of the day, whether it is the provincial government, or the local government that carries out the functions. Everything has to mesh with the national framework of standards and procedures.
We also have to decide how such functions are to be funded. As I said, the Constitution places on Government the responsibility for environmental care, but the Constitution does not provide the funding for the task.
We in Government have a serious mandate which is inadequately funded. I think that is true of both spheres of government, national and provincial. We simply do not have the trained personnel, and I think the Northern Province referred to that. We simply do not have the trained personnel in sufficient numbers, nor the budgets, to provide the environmental protection mandated to us by the Constitution. We cannot allow this kind of scenario to continue. KwaZulu-Natal has been giving attention to this anomaly. We take seriously, as I am sure other colleagues would, the responsibilities toward the environment and human society. Early in April we organised a workshop in Durban to discuss the responsibility of various spheres of government, national, provincial and local. We were delighted that there were colleagues of ours from five other provinces present at this workshop, where we engaged in a full-day workshop to try to fathom from the National Environmental Management Act what exactly our responsibilities are.
The report has been given to the hon the Minister, and I am sure that the national department will take this forward so that there is clarity on who has to do what and when. To this end we are concerned about the levels of pollution, particularly in the Southern Durban area, and I want to thank the hon the Minister and the Deputy Minister for the proactive steps that they have taken to come to the province to try to sort out this problem.
Unfortunately what does tend to happen is that, because my portfolio title is ``MEC for Environmental Affairs'', the first port of call is my office. So, I think here again we have to sort out, particularly when it comes to disasters, who goes in and acts. I would like to think that any sphere of government which is available at that moment when there is a disaster, should be able to act, as we did when it came to a sulphur dioxide leak at one of the factories recently. We had problems there. We instituted a committee which investigated the matter.
I am looking forward to the investigating committee on the polythene chlorine leaks as well. I understand that a panel has been put together, and I hope that this investigation can start soon, because the hon the Minister did indicate publicly that there would be an investigation into this matter. [Time expired.] [Applause.]