Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Jóhni Steenkamp
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West wrote to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT), Elias Khunou, requesting the committee to summon the MEC of DEDECT, Bitsa Lenkopane, as well as her department to appear before the committee to provide clarity on the exclusion of North West from the 8 bankable tourism projects announced at South Africa’s inaugural G20 Tourism Investment Summit this week. (See press release here)
While provinces like Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape secured flagship investments, the North West, home to world-renowned tourism assets such as Pilanesberg National Park, Sun City, Madikwe Game Reserve, Taung Skull Heritage Site, and Hartbeespoort Dam, was left out. This is a devastating indictment of the North West provincial government’s failure to prepare and package bankable projects that could attract national and global investors.
Tourism is one of the most labour-intensive sectors, with the potential to absorb thousands of unemployed youth. In a province with one of the highest unemployment rates in South Africa, being left out of an R1 billion pipeline is a missed opportunity and a betrayal of the people of the North West.
In the letter, the DA requested the chairperson of the DEDECT portfolio committee to:
- Request a briefing from the National Department of Tourism to clarify the criteria and process used to select the eight projects for the G20 Summit investment pipeline. While the National Department is not ordinarily accountable to a provincial legislature, I submit that, in the spirit of cooperative governance and oversight strengthening, such an engagement is both possible and necessary.
- Summon the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT) to account for the province’s failure to prepare and package bankable projects capable of inclusion in the national investment pipeline and to present its plans to remedy this in future rounds.
The DA will be tabling urgent questions to both MEC Bitsa Lenkopane (DEDECT) and Minister Patricia de Lille to demand:
- Why the North West was excluded from the national pipeline;
- What investment-ready projects the province has submitted in recent years;
- How many of the 100 UN Tourism Scholarships announced at the Summit will be allocated to North West youth; and
- What urgent steps will be taken to upgrade our decaying tourism infrastructure and make our province investor-ready?
The North West province cannot afford to remain on the sidelines while other provinces attract billions in tourism investment. Every rand lost is a job lost. The DA will fight to ensure that this province’s tourism potential is unlocked.