With the beaches closed, the business and tourism sector have suffered Photo Pexels
KZN – The festive season is right at our doorstep and yet, many of the beaches in KwaZulu-Natal remain closed. The tourism industry, especially in Durban, has been hit hard by the closure of the beaches. While the business and tourism sector are the most affected, they are also the ones who remain quiet.
During the pandemic the tourism and business leaders were vociferous about the rules and regulations regarding Covid and tourists not being allowed out and about. Although they have met with the eThekwini Municipality, they have failed to take the matter a step further as is required, explained Wayne Duvenage, a civil activist at OUTA.
“Tourism is impacted heavily by E. coli on the beaches. The restaurants, the car guards, the crafters, the traders. Everybody gets hurt when tourists stay away. We believe that businesses are not doing enough to hold the local government to account. They have a role and responsibility, not just to engage authorities, but to hold them to account … What they need to do is set timelines, understand the extent of the problem with the municipality and then put them on terms.”
The next step forward
Almost 80% of municipal sewage plants are malfunctioning which means raw sewage is finding its way into the oceans water. This, to Duvenage, is without a doubt a criminal offence and must be treated as such. The next step, while it might be tough, is to pursue criminal charges against those who are responsible.
“If it is a criminal offence to spew raw sewage into our rivers then criminal charges need to be laid against the accounting authorities in the eThekwini Municipality. That means the city manager, the operational staff who are responsible for this situation can get criminal records. That’s the route we have to go. We have to bring in the Green Scorpions and to start laying charges. The final step is to get a court order that hands over the management and the repairs of these wastewater treatment plants to civil society or the private sector.”
This has to be driven by the business associations who need to coordinate with each other and campaign together. When that happens, all the sewage fees that are charged to businesses and homes needs to be put into a trust account and this money must be used to maintain the wastewater treatment plans, said Duvenage.
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Businesses and the tourism sector need to take charge
Duvenage strongly believes more needs to be done from the business and tourism sector, especially the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA). They need to come to the playing field and deal with matters instead of shying away from it.
“FEDHASA is not doing enough. They are pretty quiet. Neither is the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA). These institutions and these organisations who are supposed to be lobbying on behalf of the industry, lobbying with government, against government are sitting back and are too scared to hold government to account. We think it’s time for them to take stock of the situation. These big industry associations have a bigger role to play than the current one they are playing. If they don’t step out of their comfort zones, if they don’t go and challenge local government, then there might not be a city in which to do business in the future.”
Businesses coming together for a common cause
The way the city can be saved is if businesses engage meaningfully with the city, explained Duvenage. If they don’t want to do this, businesses and the tourism sector must come together to create one organisation which will spearhead a campaign for change.
“What the authorities can’t do is threaten associations. They can’t do anything about FEDHASA. FEDHASA is a national government entity. They can’t threaten the chamber of industry because it is a body. The one individual that you might appoint to drive this matter, is somebody you might need to protect. Those are the costs that businesses and the tourism industry have to face and pull together. It is not going to happen at no cost. You are going to have to appoint legal counsel. This is the work you have to do.”
This is the same way OUTA started, explained Duvenage. They got businessmen to fund OUTA in order to bring about change and the same must happen here.
“When you are tackling local government, you tackle them in a way that removes the threat from the individuals and if there is a threat, it is on one individual who has to have the courage to stand up. They must also know if they chop the head of that individual, the problem doesn’t go away because it is an organisation. It is a multi-layered organisation that is bringing this challenge. We need to fix eThekwini and the way you do that is through a collective campaign and focused, possibly even tax revolts, where the city will feel the pain. Do it constructively and with a legal approach.”
It is unfortunate that it has come to this stage where the public and private sector have to look after the infrastructure. However, this is the only way to ensure the city does not collapse, said Duvenage.
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FEDHASA and TBCSA are failing in their duties
FEDHASA is supposed to be championing the causes of the hotel industry. Unfortunately, they have been failing in this duty for a number of reasons.
“The saddest thing about FEDHASA is that their big players, the big hotel groups are not all members of FEDHASA. So, it weakens the association politics within it. Sadly, I’ve seen this in the car rental association as well, they devolve the powers of running these associations to junior management or middle management who have no powers. The executives stay away. We need the executives to get involved in these industry associations, to head them up and to meet monthly or quarterly. When they can do that, they become stronger, empowered and put the funds in and they run these matters.”
FEDHASA reports to the TBCSA who is then supposed to challenge government on these issues impacting FEDHASA. However, it appears to Duvenage that TBCSA does not challenge the government on many matters.
“The Tourism Business Council doesn’t like to challenge the government and we can’t understand why. It is a voluntary organisation. They are not doing the work that they should be. They are not challenging government hard on any issues. The poor tour operators take far too long to get their professional permits for their drivers. So many things are wrong besides these localised issues in eThekwini. They are not campaigning these causes on behalf of the industry and so we suffer. Our tourism numbers are well below where they should be from an international point of view. We need leadership to step up, stand up and stop fearing government.”
Poorly maintained infrastructure
Poorly maintained infrastructure has led to Durban beaches being closed as well as Cape Town beaches such as Muizenberg and Fish Hoek. Sewage spills have forced the municipality to close the beaches as a precaution. Acting Cape Town mayor Eddie Andrews said continued high stages of load-shedding has taken its toll on sewage infrastructure. However, the city is aiming to install generators at every major treatment plant in an attempt to stop the infrastructure from decaying more and will start repairs.
For Durban, the solution is not as simple or easy. Years of improper maintenance and the devastation caused by the floods in April means it is going to cost the city a lot of money to fix the wastewater treatment plants, said Duvenage.
“I’m afraid the repairs to the wastewater treatment plants are going to be costly and it’s going to take time because some of them are so far gone that they almost have to be rebuilt. The city has done a very poor job in maintaining them and that goes for normal water reticulation, reservoirs, you see the roads, you see the traffic lights and the list is long. There seems to be this problem that money spent on maintenance is wasted money as far as municipalities and local governments are concerned. We’ve seen the input on expenditure for maintenance dropping over the years and that’s a sad situation.”
Change will not come until businesses and local tourism come together to create an organisation that will spearhead for change. Organisations need to stop being fearful of the government and fulfil their roles and obligations. Until then, it seems highly unlikely the situation will change for the better and could possibly deteriorate further.
