The issue of UBC’s was instituted by government supposedly to curb child trafficking but tourism bosses say government did not do their homework. The issue is now top of the agenda at the upcoming Tourism Business Council of South Africa board meeting scheduled for 6 December. The early consensus is that the government must be dragged to court and the tourism industry is keen to sponsor the court action.
David Frost, CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association (Satsa) says it is his considered opinion that “the only way we will actually get the truth to be considered on the issue of unabridged birth certificates is in a court of law”.
Frost wrote in a newsletter to the tourism trade that he had met with the Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, together with senior leaders from the industry, and had come up with a number of solutions on the issue of congestion at OR Tambo International Airport. He added that attempts to meet with the Department of Home Affairs to table these issues had been met with nothing other than contempt and said “the plight of visitors to our country continues to be disregarded”.
Earlier this website reported that the draconian unabridged birth certificate rule was supported by government only because it was backed up by one of the biggest lies ever told in the South African parliament. Meanwhile it is ruining the local tourism industry.
The new visa regulations, which has seen tourism figures plummet in the past two years, was instituted on the back of Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni telling parliament’s portfolio committee on Home Affairs that “it is estimated that 30,000 minors are trafficked through RSA borders every year and 50% of these minors are under 14 years”. Actual figures, however, reveal that only 23 cases of child-trafficking have been uncovered in the past three years.
Tourism industry professionals have taken to social media to say they are keen to sponsor court action against the government. One said: “Our constitutional rights and the enforcement thereof by the legal system, seem to be the ONLY final and effective way of dealing with stupidity, greed, croneyism and corruption, which is crippling our industry and the broader economy. I am certain that a concerted campaign via Social Media, SATSA… will get the necessary funding in place to get the culprit(s) into court. Get these obtuse, ignorant, greedy, corrupt incompetent, government institutions into court and get them overruled, overridden and out of our faces, live and businesses. They are parasites, cockroaches and are hell-bent, directly or indirectly to fail the economy and country, to protect and serve their narrow-minded greed and self-serving interests.”
