3 years ago
2
ARTICLE AD BOX
For many years tour operators across SA have borne the pain and anguish of disruptions to their operations due to unconscionable delays in the licensing of the vehicles they use to transport tourists.
In an effort to resolve the long-standing licensing problems, the Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) and the department of transport (DoT) have partnered to conduct a series of roadshows to enable tour operators to engage face to face with the department and its licensing agency, the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR).
This initiative builds on good progress already made by the department and the NPTR over the past several months in reducing the massive licence backlog. This is a welcome new development in government-business engagement.
Over many years industry formations have pushed for the resolution of the licensing impasse, which has seen businesses close, and jobs lost, due to long delays.
The initiative came about a result of the tourism industry turning to a government department that has nothing to do with either transport or tourism. In 2021 TBCSA called on the department of small business development to get involved because it recognised the department carries a crucial two-fold mandate that positions it perfectly to break the persistent licensing deadlock.
First, the department is charged with supporting the growth of small businesses across the economy, regardless of which sector they operate in. This includes the countless small businesses that are the backbone of tourism in our country. Second, and importantly, the department is the sole custodian of the official mandate to create a conducive operating environment for SMEs. Key in this mandate is the reduction of red tape.
This is not to say that other departments are absolved from the responsibility to eliminate undue regulatory blockages, but when there is no progress the department of small business development bears the responsibility to intervene. In fact, it is the only government department with a dedicated red tape reduction programme and so it is incumbent upon it to take action when businesses are burdened with unnecessary regulatory impediments.
Moreover, the minister holds a powerful legislative instrument that has never been put to use. The 1996 National Small Business Act grants the minister powers to gazette guidelines for organs of state in national, provincial and local spheres of government to promote small business by, among others, conducting an assessment of the effect of new and existing legislation on small businesses.
Tourist transport licensing regulations are a clear candidate for this type of intervention.
When the problem was brought to the attention of the department's red tape reduction programme, it convened a two-day workshop dedicated to confronting tourism red tape, held in Durban in July 2022.
That workshop produced clear proposals, with timelines to resolve the issue.
There are two key lessons to learn from this experience. The first and plain one is that when government departments work together, sticky regulatory challenges can be resolved successfully. Unfortunately, this is not standard practice within government and the business sector pays a heavy price for it. Secondly, the business sector needs to be a lot more adept at understanding the entire gamut of policy levers and instruments it can use to bring about changes in the regulatory environment.
Over an extended period of time the tourism industry invested much effort in pressing the two departments that it believed, correctly so, held the key to the resolution of the licensing problem, namely the departments of tourism and transport. No attention was paid to the potent red tape reduction instruments in the hand of the DSBD. It turns out that the trigger for the solution sought for so long lay in the hands of the small business department.
Going forward, the TBCSA will press for much closer working together among relevant government departments to create an enabling operating environment for the tourism private sector as a whole.
• Bukula chairs the growth and transformation committee of the TBCSA board.
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