5 August 2020
‘Tourism has been thrown into crisis’ From P1 The excitement over a return of visitors to our shores comes at a time when it seems as if the spread of the Coronavirus is starting to stabilise in the Western Cape, with a decline in numbers being recorded in some areas, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said over the weekend. On Monday, a total of 81 309 recoveries in the Western Cape were recorded out of a total of 95 406 confirmed cases. In the Overstrand there were 1 397 cases and 1 207 recoveries, in Cape Agulhas 222 cases with 185 recoveries, and in the Theewaterskloof 1 073 cases and 880 recoveries. The total number of deaths in the Western Cape stood at 3 143. “While this is good news, it does not mean that we can rest on our laurels. On the contrary, it means we must be even more vigilant. We must keep our curve moving in the right direction, in all areas – downwards. If we let our foot off the pedal now, and do not continue to change our behaviour, then we risk new flare-ups and an acceleration of cases in the future. We cannot allow this to happen,” said Winde. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday said the country’s case fatality rate, which is the number
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of deaths as a proportion of confirmed cases, remains at 1.6% – significantly lower than the global average. “While South Africa has the fifth highest number of total Covid-19 cases globally, we have only the 36th highest number of deaths as a proportion of the population. For this, we are grateful for the work of our health professionals and the innovative treatments they have pioneered. “The national lockdown succeeded in delaying the spread of the virus by more than two months, preventing a sudden and uncontrolled increase in infections in late March. Had South Africans not acted together to prevent this outcome, our health system would have been overwhelmed in every province. This would have resulted in a dramatic loss of life,” Ramaphosa said. While there is much anticipation for the coming weekend, the newly released Draft Tourism Recovery Plan highlights the profound impact the pandemic has had on the tourism sector. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in its 2020 travel and tourism recovery scenarios projects the global travel and tourism GDP to experience losses during 2020 of between $2
686 billion in the best-case scenario and $5 543 billion in the worst-case scenario. “Tourism in South Africa, as is the case in the global economy, has been thrown into crisis by the Covid-19 pandemic, putting thousands of businesses and jobs at risk. The priority for the sector is to resume operations as early as it is safe to do so, but re-opening will just be the start of a difficult recovery. The situation requires an urgent response, but also a recognition of the constraints that hamper South Africa’s tourism development,” states the draft plan. “This recovery plan proposes a series of measures to protect and rejuvenate supply, reignite demand and strengthen enabling capability. Together, these actions can preserve some R189 billion of value, helping the sector to recover to 2019 output and employment levels in 2022, and positioning the sector for long-term sustainable growth.”
billion in foreign income at risk. According to the draft recovery plan, the pandemic has devastated the global travel trade and South Africa has not been spared. By late March, hotel occupancy was down 50% year-on-year and, with the rest of the sector, has declined further to effectively under 5%, mainly serving as quarantine and isolation sites and providing for essential services workers during the Level 5 lockdown. Booking sites in South Africa have largely reflected global trends, with Airbnb experiencing a 77% decline in traffic from a peak in March, and with booking.com seeing an 80% decline over the same period. A copy of the draft plan is available at www. tourism.gov.za. All stakeholders and the public are encouraged to comment on the plan. Submissions can be sent to recovery@tourism.gov. za until 15 August 2020.
The tourism sector accounts for 2.9% of GDP (8.6% indirect), supports about 725 000 direct jobs (1.49 million direct and indirect) and accounted for 8.2% of total investment activity in 2019. Perhaps most importantly, inbound tourism generates R82.5 billion in direct foreign spend (R126.7 billion total tourism expenditure), contributing an equivalent of 9.2% of total national exports. It is estimated that R54.2 billion in output may already have been lost between mid-March and the end of May. The sector faces a potential 75% revenue reduction in 2020, putting a further R149.7 billion in output, 438 000 jobs and R80.2
Implementation of two SRAs postponed Writer De Waal Steyn
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request by the Onrus-Vermont (OVRA) and the Kleinmond (KSRA) Special Rating Areas to postpone the implementation of the special rating areas with a year was approved by council during a virtual meeting on 29 July. The first additional monthly levy for the KSRA and OVSRA will now be payable from 1 July 2021. The Hermanus Special Rating Area (HSRA) and the operational implementation of the ratepayer approved business plan is going ahead as planned. Hermanus Public Protection (HPP) will be the management body of the HSRA once all documents have been finalised. The full implementation of HPP Management services, in particular, Crime Prevention, Public Safety and Cleansing services, may be expected later this month. Suburbs included in the HSRA are Westcliff,
hampered / restricted by the various levels of lockdown we have experienced throughout these trying times. For example, we could not finalise the Financial Agreement and Memorandum of Incorporation with the municipality due to the challenges of holding meetings during this time,” writes Inghels.
remained untouched by this unprecedented situation, including our entire community. We are currently finalising discussions with the municipality regarding the agreements that need to be put in place and the processes we need to follow to get the NPC up and running and ensure implementation in 2021.”
“Due to Covid-19 Regulations we cannot at this stage, nor could we for the past four months, hold a public meeting for the community to participate in and elect the board of the new non-profit company (NPC) required to manage the SRA. This needs to happen within six months of the creation of the NPC according to the by-law,” reads the letter.
According to him, due to the current situation regarding the pandemic, many people may also be under serious financial strain. “We must keep in mind that many pensioners and retirees (of which we have many in our area) rely on their investments for an income and these are currently severely impacted. The SRA could therefore be another financial strain to many community members at this stage. We therefore felt the responsible decision was to postpone the implementation of the SRA levy for a year.
The OVSRA includes all areas in Ward 13 (Onrus, Onrus North, Berghof and Vermont). The proposed first phase will entail purchasing and putting up CCTV cameras and implementing patrolling services. For more information, email the steering committee at onrus.vermont.sra@ gmail.com
“We could also not register the NPC as the department’s systems were down for a great part of lockdown and have only become operational recently. Many of the arrangements regarding the implementation of the SRA have been
“We trust that the community understands our difficulty in making this decision, and the disappointment of seeing our committed efforts to getting the vote through in time for 2020 implementation dashed. Nobody has
Westdene, Industria, Northcliff, the Central Business District (CBD), Eastcliff, Hermanus Heights, Fernkloof, Kwaaiwater and Voëlklip. The special rate levy that property owners will pay, is available on the HSRA website – go to www.hermanussra.co.za for further details. According to a letter sent to residents by Abner Inghels on behalf of the OVSRA Steering Committee, there were several reasons for making the request to postpone the implementation.
The KSRA will include all properties in the area within the boundaries of Kleinmond, being the eastern boundary of Heuningkloof, the coastline as the southern boundary, the western boundary of Palmiet and the informal settlement, and the mountain as northern boundary. The proposed first phase will be the purchasing and putting up of CCTV cameras. For more information, visit www.kleinmondsra.co.za.
