Is Kortbroek on his way out?
13. Apr, 2009
2 Comments
The Mother City – Hands up anyone who has seen our Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk of late? And I don’t mean pushing his shopping trolley round Pick n Pay either, I mean actually performing an official function. In fact, if I sit and think about it, I haven’t seen Kortbroek (gasp, sorry Oom Thinus!) for quite some time now, save for a brief glimpse at the recent Climate Summit at Gallagher Estate.
Prior to that he was in and out at the National Tourism Conference, held here last November. And apart from that most of the big official engagements have been performed by his deputy, the alarmingly ineloquent and inarticulate Rejoice Mabudafhasi, she of the stumbling, over-long speech and mumbling, inaudible diatribe.
So, what’s afoot? Well, it doesn’t take too much brain power to figure that with an election looming in a mere week Meneer Broek is probably off to pastures new. Leaving all of us in this industry hoping and praying that the last year’s huge increase in Um-Er-Um Rejoice’s diary is not paving the way for her to step into KB’s cast-offs.
There have been mutterings of late, especially in the wake of President Zuma’s meeting with tourism’s head honchos and the TBCSA (yes, I did say PRESIDENT Zuma… Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t think that next Wednesday is a foregone conclusion?) And one of the most prevalent mutterings is that perhaps the government should consider the appointment of a dedicated tourism minister, and not one with a split portfolio.
I must admit that the environmental bit in Environmental Affairs and Tourism does seem to take precedence over the tourism part.
And yes, I even concur that the government doesn’t seem to take tourism that seriously. Unless, of course, there’s a rather large soccer tournament to be hosted.
But, being the hardened conservationist and environmentalist that I am, I find it hard to ponder the future of one without considering the effect of the other. You see, the two halves of the portfolio are very, very intertwined. And, although the vast majority of the tourism industry would doubtless disagree with me, it is the environment which is at greater risk.
You see, tourism is akin to a strangler fig, growing up with the environment, winding around it, through it and co-existing with it happily until finally, it gets bigger than its host and begins to choke the living daylights out of it, finally killing it stone dead.
And in South Africa, if you take the environment out of the equation, there is no tourism.
More than 80% of our tourism earnings come from people out there spending time with Mother Nature in one form or another, going on game drives to find the Big Five; being caked in sweet smelling unguents and massaged to within an inch of their lives in the middle of the bush; hurling themselves down raging torents in nought but an over-inflated truck tyre, or frying themselves on a deserted beach somewhere.
Take Mama Africa out, and tourism is off to dodo-land and certain extinction. Believe me, 10-million tourists a year are not going to come shopping in Sandton, doll.
So yes, we need a minister who can handle both parts of the portfolio. And fair do’s, Marthinus has managed this rather well, and certainly much better than any of us anticipated when he was given the job (and I was one of them who was rolling hysterically on the floor).
I actually hope that Oom Thinus remains in his position, but I doubt very much that this will come to pass. JZ is bound to have a big cabinet shake-up as soon as his bum sits formally on the presidential throne. And this means that we should now be considering who is likely to take over Marthinus’s mantle.
Like I said, we can only hope that it isn’t Rejoice. I don’t mean to be nasty, because she is actually a nice lady, but completely unremarkable. And when South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Africa and the entire planet are at stake, I for one want somebody with a touch of Al Gore in them at the environmental helm. Because if our environment is safe and secure, then the future of tourism is assured.
So cast off the mutterers and ignore those calling for a dedicated tourism minister. And consider, ladies and gentlefolk of the tourism industry, that the portfolio title has got it right – it’s environment first, then tourism. Here endeth the sermon. Amen.
About Author
Award-winning writer and film-maker Sharon van Wyk was born in Cambridge in England, where she was raised, and educated. She fell in love with Africa and its wild places at an early age, thanks to her family hauling her to Kenya, South Africa and what is now Zimbabwe before the age of 10.
She began working in journalism in the early 1980s, pushed into it, she says by her first boyfriend, rock guitarist Phil Collen of Def Leppard. “I used to write him long letters while he was touring and he kept nagging me to turn pro, so I did, writing for heavy metal magazines!”
Writing concert reviews turned into mainstream journalism with stints on top newspapers and magazines in the UK before Sharon traded black leather for khaki, returning permanently to South Africa 17 years ago. She now writes widely on conservation, eco-tourism and travel, and makes natural history documentaries with her company, Painted Earth Productions (www.paintedearth.tv). “My life has been a safari extraordinaire, and the bush is where I find my bliss” she says.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
No comments yet... Be the first to leave a reply!