Question NW2286 to the Minister of Tourism
30 October 2020 - NW2286
Sithole, Mr KP to ask the Minister of Tourism
Whether she will furnish Mr K P Sithole with an update regarding her statement dated 30 May 2020, entitled Covid-19 alert level 3 risk adjusted strategy tourism sector response measures and directions, and in particular advice on the progress of the R30 million financial relief package that was set aside for tour guides as there are many registered tour guides who are yet to receive financial relief; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. Following the Minister’s address earlier this year, a budget of R30million was set aside to provide financial assistance to the tourist guiding sector, particularly to tourist guides that operate as freelancers. To be eligible to access the fund, the following minimum requirements had to be met:
- Be a registered tourist guide with the relevant Provincial Registrar; and
- Be a freelance tourist guide (i.e. not registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) as an employee)
2. The Department implemented a “no application’’ process. As the custodians of the information pertaining to registered tourist guides, Provincial Registrars (from all nine (9) provinces) provided the Department with their respective databases of registered tourist guides whose details (including cellphone numbers) had been verified and updated.
3. Based on the information that was received by the respective Provincial Registrars, further verifications were conducted with UIF. Based on the outcome of the UIF verification process, payments to a total of 4415 tourist guides have been processed to date. The 4415 tourist guides that were processed for payment met the criteria that is outlined above. As per the UIF data, 4778 tourist guides did not qualify for the funding.During the verification process it was found that 260 were duplications or their information was incomplete or incorrect.The breakdown of the number of guides submitted by the respective provinces and the payments that have been processed per province is outlined in the table below:
|
Province |
Number of guides submitted by province |
Number of guides that met the criteria for payment |
% of guides received funding |
|
1. Eastern Cape |
505 |
179 |
35% |
|
2. Free State |
38 |
24 |
63% |
|
3. Gauteng |
1167 |
963 |
83% |
|
4. KwaZulu-Natal |
745 |
410 |
55% |
|
5. Limpopo |
418 |
145 |
35% |
|
6. Mpumalanga |
1197 |
434 |
36% |
|
7. Northern Cape |
109 |
105 |
96% |
|
8. North West |
242 |
116 |
48% |
|
9. Western Cape |
5032 |
2039 |
41% |
|
Totals |
9453 |
4415 |
47% |
4. A total of R19 867 500.00 has been committed for the payment to 4415 tourist guides. By end of October 2020, all 4415 tourist guides will have received a total payment of R4500 (R1500per guide X 3 months).