M van Schalkwyk: Environmental Affairs and Tourism Dept Budget Vote
2006/07

6 June 2006

Hope is the firm hand of the fisheries officer who risks life and limb to
keep fish in the sea and put poachers behind bars. Hope is the fence that falls
between the parks of two countries once in conflict, now partnered in
conservation. It is the tread of the lion, the leopard and the cheetah free
from shameful death. Hope is the sure and steady breath of children's lungs no
longer battling airborne poisons. It is the exhilaration of the community that
once stood and watched as travellers drove past and who now stand proud as
hosts and guides. Hope is the whispered promise of all this preserved for the
benefit, enjoyment and pride of generations yet unborn.

Madame Speaker, there are few emotions more powerful or more infectious than
hope. It springs to life in even the most desolate of times, endures conditions
of great adversity and thrives when nourished by the glimpse of a better
future. It is the union of faith, potential, expectation and optimism and in
South Africa it has come to define the character of our people.

The fundamental commitment of our Department is clear; better tourism and a
better environment to build the ‘Age of Hope.’

Firm foundations - a year of success

Speaker, there have been few years in which more was achieved in South
Africa both in tourism and the environment than the one now past. It has seen
South Africa recognised as a global 'champion of the earth' by the United
Nations (UN), we welcomed more international travellers than at any time in our
history. Major new parks were proclaimed, three new World Heritage Sites
inscribed and the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Charter and scorecard for
tourism was finalised.

These and so many other achievements have been the successes not of
government alone but of every community, organisation and individual involved
in tourism and the environment. They form a track record of trust and a firm
foundation on which we will continue to build the age of hope.

Protecting hope - legislation, regulations, compliance and enforcement

Speaker, we know that there are many communities for whom the environment
has been anything but a source of hope. This is where the interests of people
and the interests of our environment converge. We must ensure that the
development so critically needed by our people is balanced by considerations of
the long-term impact of the development not only on our environment but also on
the health of our communities. It is also why we promulgated the Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations in April. I am pleased to announce that we
have created a specially funded unit to build EIA capacity and to provide the
necessary support to provincial authorities.

From EIA regulations to regulations for threatened and protected species and
norms and standards for hunting, we have seen much legislative and regulatory
progress this year. I am also pleased to announce today the first ever South
African National Standards for Ambient Air Quality (SANSAAQ) that are
specifically aimed at protecting peoples' right to air that is not harmful to
health and well being. We are now defining the specific levels of air pollution
like benzene, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter that South Africa
considers harmful to health. Apart from giving teeth to our air quality
legislation and effect to our Constitutional protections, this will also help
us to decide the types of development and technology that will be acceptable in
specific areas. Developed in partnership with the South African Bureau of
Standards (SABS), the standards will be published for public comment for 90
days in the Government Gazette on Friday. We will also be hosting the first
annual National Air Quality Governance Lekgotla in October bringing together
officials from all spheres of government to address air quality issues and to
help us clean up the air in all communities.

A concern often rose by honourable members and by the broader public when
government has passed important legislation is how it will be enforced. I would
like today to ask this House to recognise the presence, in the visitor’s
gallery, of the men and women of our Environmental Management Inspectorate
(EMIs) our 'Green Scorpions' who appear today for the first time in their
official enforcement uniforms and branding. We have already appointed more than
630 EMIs within South African National (SAN) Parks but this is not enough. We
know how vital it is to ensure compliance and enforcement and how challenging.
This is why we have trained another 175 EMIs who will be appointed by the
provinces in the next three months. By the end of this financial year at least
800 EMIs will form the sharp end of the spear enforcing compliance with our
environmental laws.

On the marine and coastal management front our national operation Orca,
which was initiated in August last year has seen marine products to the value
of almost R38 million seized along with 35 vehicles, three vessels and a number
of other assets. There have been 78 convictions, breakthroughs into four
syndicate operations and the first ever long-term direct imprisonment of seven
years for possession and transport of Perlemoen. Our environmental protection
fleet led by our flagship the Sarah Baartman is now also fully operational. In
510 sea days last year 714 vessels were inspected, 13 rescue operations
undertaken, 25 arrests made and 50 fines issued. We plan to boost these
operations to at least 700 sea days with at least one South African Developing
Community (SADC) patrol per quarter.

With the closure in July by the Department of Justice of the specialised
courts, all environmental cases will now be heard within their own districts.
From 1 August a new dedicated unit will be established by our Department and
the Department of Justice to attend to all cases in the Western Cape with
officials seconded from the Department to join a unit prosecuting these cases
in district courts, regional courts and the High Court. By the end of this
financial year more than 100 prosecutors will also have received specialised
training in the prosecution of environmental crimes marine, wildlife and
pollution related.

Building hope - jobs and growth through environment and tourism

Speaker, jobs, growth and hope are the core business of every South African.
Through our social responsibility projects and programmes we have created more
than 16 800 job opportunities, 254 permanent jobs and almost 103 000 training
days last year alone. This year we will be launching a Social Impact Study to
review the direct results of these programmes and we aim to create a further 12
500 job opportunities, another 300 permanent jobs and more than 130 000
training days. The conference bags, honourable members, received today are just
one of the examples of the fruits of our social responsibility programmes.
These bags are produced by a craft group of about 80 rural women called,
Thubaleth' elihle (our good opportunity), in KwaZulu-Natal. The bags are woven
from indigenous water loving sedge known as Ikhwane which is the most abundant
plant in the 400 hectare Mbongolwane wetland. Production of crafts from Ikhwane
growing in the Mbongolwane wetland forms part of an ongoing integrated
initiative to assist the local community in sustainable using the wetland under
increasing social and economic pressures.

There is little doubt as to why tourism has been identified as one of the
immediate priority sectors within Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for
South Africa (AsgiSA), as it remains one of the most dynamic sectors in our
economy. Lest we forget in the two decades before 1990 we received less than
one million annual foreign arrivals. Last year we shattered every target we set
for ourselves welcoming no less than 7,3 million international visitors. As
part of the growth platform targeted by AsgiSA, tourism has been set some very
steep goals for the next five years: 500 000 new jobs, 8,5 million
international arrivals annually and a contribution to Growth Development
Product (GDP) of at least R100 billion a year. Our challenge in reaching these
goals will be to ensure that this growth translates into real benefits for the
person trapped in poverty and in the second economy. In addition to the work
that we are currently doing, I have instructed the Department to within the
next two months develop a comprehensive programme of second economy
interventions. I am also pleased today to announce the creation of a new R20
million Tourism Equity Fund (TEF) by our Department. This fund will provide
access to much needed support for small and medium sized wheel and tour
operators and will provide tourism Small, medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs)
with a real boost for further growth.

To further strengthen the growth in tourism we will be strongly focused on
seven key priorities: transport, safety and security, product and business
development, market growth, information, Black Economic Enterprise (BEE) and
skills. Specifically to address the skills gap, we have allocated R7,5 million
to a partnership between our Department, the Tourism Hospitality and Education
Training Authority (THETA), the National Business Initiative and the Tourism
Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) to build a consensus skills plan to
revise the existing curricula and to streamline the process of accreditation
and certification. In October we will host a National Tourism Skills Conference
to discuss the results of a skills audit currently underway.

Another focal point for our interventions to support the first economy, grow
the second economy and build real hope has been the long term fishing rights
allocations. Members may not be aware that in total 8028 applications were
received for these long terms commercial rights roughly double the number
anticipated. With 1516 successful applicants thus far awarded rights to catch
about 600 000 tons of fish, the major hallmark of the process has been real
empowerment; 29 percent of the Deep-sea Hake Trawl catch is now black
controlled, up from 14 percent in 2001 as is 66 percent of Pilchard up from 64
percent in 2001 and 61 percent of West Coast Rock Lobster (offshore), up from
51 percent in 2001.

We have not forgotten our very poorest communities in the rights allocations
either specifically those coastal fishers who depend on the sea for their own
food needs and the most basic of incomes. To regulate this activity and to
ensure a fair share for these fishers we will be publishing by August for
comment and review, two new policies, one for subsistence fishes and one for
small scale commercial fishing. We invite and urge all interested parties
especially non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and our provincial and local
authorities, to contribute to this process. We will also this year be tabling
the new Integrated Coastal Management Bill in parliament which will promote
co-ordinated and integrated coastal management one of the benefits of which
will be ensuring access to the coast for coastal communities, who are
increasingly restricted by development rights granted to companies and private
individuals.

Expanding hope - popularising the environment and ensuring a legacy

Speaker, there are signs that our environmental concerns are fast becoming
part of the daily lives of South Africans. A good example of an environmental
battle that is being taken up by communities across South Africa is our effort
to combat and adapt to the worst effects of climate change. The agricultural
sector is already in the process of developing its plan, the Department of
Science and Technology is crafting a national research and development
strategy, Minerals and Energy has just released appliance energy efficiency
labelling and our own Department is in the process of updating South Africa's
Greenhouse Gas Inventory in partnership with Business Unity South Africa
(BUSA). This year will also see long term planning for climate change initiated
to assist us in directing investments in major sectors like energy, transport
and even tourism. We will, for example, be engaging with the tourism sector
through the Tourism Grading Council to develop standards for waste recycling,
reducing energy consumption and introducing green technology.

Our aim is to ensure that the 2010 Soccer World Cup for instance leaves our
country with a legacy of green tourism infrastructure and practices. In this
regard I would like to issue a challenge to the industry, especially in the
accommodation sector that as their contribution to the 2010 legacy that all new
accommodation establishments to be built should be guided by the principle of
energy efficiency. I will be interacting with the industry in the next six
months in order to decide on a mutually agreeable approach.

Perhaps the most visible embodiments of our environmental success and the
points of greatest contact with our communities are our national parks and
protected areas. I invite the honourable members to join us this year in
celebrating a number of very important milestones like the 80th anniversary of
the Kruger Park, the 75th anniversary of the Addo, Bontebok and Kalahari
Gemsbok National Parks and the 40th anniversary of Augrabies. To honour these
celebrations we will launch South Africa's National Register of Protected Areas
in terms of the Protected Areas Act by the end of November. We do not have a
complete and accurate record of all protected areas in South Africa and this
register will meet that need as an interactive electronic database. In 2002 we
set a goal for South Africa to increase the land under formal protection from
5,3 percent to eight percent by 2010. Over the next three years we have
budgeted more than R175 million for further land purchases and I will give
details of another 230 000 hectares of newly acquired protected areas in the
National Council of Parliaments (NCOP) on Thursday. The expansion of the
conservation estate and the quest to have a representative park system is
important but what is equally important is how well we manage our parks. In
2004 parliament promulgated the Protected Areas Act. The Act gives us the power
to institute a performance management system of our parks. We will be
announcing by the end of the financial year a new park performance management
system which will guide our decision making system and set the standards for
the management of our national heritage.

I would also like to announce that to further improve the quality of the
experience that visitors have in our national parks and to expand our ability
to make conservation a driver of jobs and growth, we will be investing another
R395 million in park infrastructure over the next three years. This will be
concentrated on, amongst other projects, the upgrading of 520 existing
accommodation units creating and supplying 100 new accommodation units,
upgrading and constructing 320 km of tourist roads, developing five new camping
sites and improving or creating seven park entrances.

Conclusion

In conclusion Speaker, I would like to take a moment to reflect on a few of
the many positive changes that our Department has undergone to ensure that we
protect, build and expand South Africa's age of hope. At the forefront of this
change have been our Director-General, Pamela Yako and her management team.
Management and operational structures have been streamlined with, for instance;
the creation of new capacity like the specialised unit to drive our
international coordination and liaison, the new Directorate: Litigation and Law
Reform and the new Chief Directorate: Integrated Coastal Management, as well as
the bolstering of our research capacity in Marine and Coastal Management. They
have also led the charge in terms of improving the representation of women in
senior management positions which by the end of March stood at 38 percent and
for which we have set a target of 46 percent by the end of this financial year.
Their leadership has set the pace for our departmental achievements for which
they are highly commended.

I would also like to express my thanks to our Deputy Minister, Rejoice
Mabudafhasi, for her hard work and support this year as well as to honourable
Langa Zita, who assumed the Chairpersonship of our Portfolio Committee, to
every member of our committee which remains one of the most involved, committed
and active in parliament and to our hard working and greatly effective
statutory bodies.

Speaker, it was Beyers Naudé who observed that hope is more fundamental than
either pessimism or optimism. In South Africa it sustained the cause of our
long sought freedom and now empowers the cause of our burgeoning prosperity. As
we continue together to intensify our efforts, redouble our commitment and
exceed even our own expectations we will ensure a better environment and better
tourism to build the age of hope.

Ngiyabonga! Ndiyabulela! Ke a leboga! Enkosi!

Issued by: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
6 June 2006