Tourism Council applauds Sol Kerzner’s R23m tertiary donation

Johannesburg – Following a recent donation of a whooping R23m to the University of Johannesburg’s School of Tourism and Hospitality, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) would like to salute Sol Kerzner – the founder of Kerzner International, for his support to the tourism industry over the years.“Sol has always been one of few individuals who have played a pivotal role in transforming the tourism and hospitality industries not only in South Africa, but also in other parts of the African continent and the world,” says Mmatšatši Marobe, Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.

According to Marobe, this donation made for educational undertakings has a very important role to play in ensuring the effective and sustainable transformation and development of the tourism industry especially in a developing country like South Africa. “This will also ensure that the poorer South Africans will begin to benefit from this industry.”

She said Sol Kerzner’s donation to the University of Johannesburg could not have come at a better time. “In the recent years the issue of skills development in the tourism industry has been placed high on the agenda by the industry role-players and government through the JIPSA programme.

“The industry realised that a lack of an integrated and co-ordinated approach to tourism skills development seriously limits the potential for transformation and development in the tourism industry, said Marobe.

“This necessitated a need to combine efforts with government in ensuring that a strategy is put in place to look at how the industry can deal with the issue of skills development and Kerzner International’s effort is a classic example of the tourism private sector’s willingness to assist the country with the much need skills.”

Marobe said that the TBCSA recently acknowledged Kerzner for his immense contribution to the growth and development of tourism at its inaugural Tourism Investment Awards held in Cape Town as part of its Hospitality Investment Conference Africa.

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