Thank you, Chairperson. Hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, Director-General and the team, apartheid systematically and purposefully restricted the majority of South Africans from meaningful participation in the economy. The assets of millions of people were directly and indirectly destroyed, and access to skills and self-employment was racially restricted. The result is an economic structure that today, in essence, still excludes the vast majority of South Africans.
The vision of an economy that meets the needs of the people in a more equitable manner goes back to the Freedom Charter of 1955. The 1995 Reconstruction and Development Programme took this further, followed by various policy models that government has outlined in order to transform the economy.
Tourism plays an important role in the building of the national democratic society by, amongst others, accelerating growth and transforming the economy in order to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods; supporting a comprehensive rural development strategy, with tourism as an economic activity in rural areas; building cohesive, caring and sustainable communities with specific mention of tourism in relation to building national pride; and building a developmental state.
Travel and tourism now account for 9,2% of the global gross domestic product, GDP; 4,8% of world exports; and 9,2% of world investments. Forecasts indicate that travel and tourism's total economic contribution in 2011 will account for more than 9,1% of R40 trillion of global GDP and 250 million jobs worldwide. Also, in South Africa tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors and its potential to contribute towards job creation, poverty alleviation and the GDP is widely acknowledged.
Yet, despite South Africa's strong policy focus on transformation and small, medium and micro enterprise, SMME, development, many emerging tourism establishments remain on the fringes of the sector. If these tourism enterprises, which represent the majority of tourism establishments, are not integrated into the tourism mainstream, tourism will not reach its potential to reduce poverty and inequality and contribute to socioeconomic transformation.
The implementation of broad-based black economic empowerment, BBBEE, and the tourism code in the tourism sector has been given high priority by the ANC-led government in view of the high potential of the industry for job creation and opportunities, and the challenges associated with tourism, both locally and globally. In order to tap into that potential and boost black empowerment in the tourism sector, the tourism services charter was enacted in 2009, with specific adaptations to the BBBEE Act of 2003 in regard to business thresholds and qualifying criteria.
Because the entire industry understands that transformation in the tourism sector will contribute to the development of our economy and alleviate poverty, and fully supports the moral need for and is committed to transformation, it has been identified as an important element of growing and sustaining tourism performance, with the National Tourism Sector Strategy, NTSS, enhancing initiatives of SMME development and support. The NTSS requires that the sector should achieve a 70% target by 2014.
While transformation in the sector has moved at a snail's pace, measures are being taken in an effort to address this. A study commissioned by the department will measure the transformation that has taken place thus far in the sector, and look at the involvement and empowerment of women in the sector. It will be a tool to measure how South Africa's tourism industry has implemented broad-based black economic empowerment. It will show how business in the tourism sector has responded to black economic empowerment, and to what extent it complies with the targets as set out in the tourism charter.
It has been said that the process of BBBEE implementation is dogged by resistance from many due to a lack of a full understanding of the charter, and also that the sector is far more fragmented and underutilised than is portrayed, with billions of rand every year being spent ineffectively. It is also said that a national drive to unlock the multitude of opportunities that exist in the sector is long overdue. Thousands of small businesses hold the key to a quantum leap in South Africa's tourism, but need to receive the right business support and marketing exposure to achieve their potential. Whether these observations hold true or not will be seen from the results of the tourism sector survey I have alluded to. From a budgetary point of view it would appear that the Department of Tourism is implementing the resolve of the National Tourism Sector Strategy, NTSS. Its sector transformation subprogramme facilitates transforming the tourism sector by implementing the gazetted Tourism BEE Charter and Scorecard, and promotes opportunities for transformative tourism development. Fifty per cent of its budget is used to facilitate transformation through public and private sector engagements, as well as for monitoring and reporting on compliance. One such report is a study on the state of transformation, which I have alluded to and which has a budget of R1,3 million, which translates to 15% of the 2011-12 budget.
The strategic partners in the Tourism subprogramme receive transfers to facilitate development support for SMMEs through the Tourism Enterprise Partnership. The spending focus over the medium term will be on supporting tourism product development for rural and less frequently visited provinces, and ensuring the competitiveness of the South African tourism sector by diversifying and enhancing the tourism product offering.
South African tourism champions transformation in the industry. Its annual Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award is directed at achieving the meaningful participation of previously disadvantaged people and small, medium and micro enterprises in South Africa's tourism sector. Only when these groups begin to participate significantly in the industry will the country see real and equitable sharing of the industry's benefits among all South Africans and also see that the benefits of South Africa's rapidly growing tourist industry are accruing to more people who have previously been denied participation, people who have previously been denied reaping the rewards of a burgeoning industry.
Ultimately transformation, and reduced inequality and poverty, will not be realised in a meaningful and sustainable way if tourism enterprises cannot access the transformation agenda and if the majority of tourism enterprises are not financially viable. The challenge for South Africa is to ensure that policies are internally and externally consistent - in other words, policy goals do not contradict other goals in the same policy or in any other policies, but that they speak directly to the realities of all types and sizes of business operations and that, most importantly, tourism businesses have the resources and incentives to apply the principles of responsible tourism.
Mutshamaxitulu, hi marito lawa, ndzi lava ku hundzisela marito lawa eka vatirhelamfumo leswaku loko va vona vanhu va ri karhi va tsutsuma exitarateni va ri karhi va toyitoya, na vona va fanele ku titwa leswaku a va tirheli ku tata xandla. Va nga langutiseli ntsena eka van'watipolitiki hikuva mali yi khoma hi vona, kasi ntirho wu endliwa hi vona. Kutani na vona va fanele ku twa ku vava leswaku loko vanhu va rila hi ANC a va rileli hina ntsena, na vona hi vona va endlaka leswaku vanhu va rila ehandle. Kutani hi nge na vona a va tiyisi mavoko ya vona leswaku mfumo lowu wa ANC wu ta tikomba leswaku wa tirha. (Translation of Xitsonga paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, with these words, I want to convey the following message to the government employees: Whenever they see people toyi-toying in the streets, they should feel that they are not serving to get rich. They should not look up to the politicians only because they are the ones who handle the finances, while they are the ones who are doing the work. They should also feel the pain, when people complain about the ANC, that they are not complaining about us only, but they are also involved in making people complain out there. That is why we are saying to them that they should work very hard so that the ANC-led government can be seen to be working.]
The ANC supports Budget Vote No 35. Thank you.