With the revival of foreign tourism to South Africa, an enterprising businessman has initiated bureaux de change shops, reports Lynda Loxton Free-standing foreign exchange `shops’ have been a common sight for South African travellers abroad, but something foreign exchange-strapped South African authorities have definitely not encouraged. All of that changed this week when it was announced that the Reserve Bank had approved a joint venture between Rennies Foreign Exchange and a black-owned Western Cape company to run South Africa’s first free-standing foreign exchange shops or bureaux. To be run under the name of Master Currency, it is the culmination of more than 18 months intensive negotiations with the authorities by Combi & Company chief executive Zitulele (KK) Combi. He said he had been struck, when travelling abroad, by the fact that tourists did not have to cope with long queues at banks or travel agencies to change their money — they simply went to a foreign exchange bureau and received a fast and efficient service. With South African tourism facing a massive revival after the first democratic elections, Combi saw a gap that needed to be filled and set to work with the help of partner Bheki Tshabalala as soon as he returned home. He ruefully admits that it has not been easy to persuade the authorities, who had long kept a very strict control over foreign exchange transactions, that this was a good idea. `It had just never been on the cards before and we came at them out of the blue … they were in a spot and did not know how to respond,’ Combi said. But once they got used to the idea, and possibly with the prospect of the lifting of foreign exchange controls in mind, Reserve Bank officials were `very helpful’. Rennies, the authorised representative of Thomas Cook in South Africa, has been the only non-banking institution licensed to deal in foreign exchange. It has held the licence since 1900 and has run its foreign exchange activities alongside its travel services. Rennies will provide management, operational support, technical advice and training to Master Currency staff, who will all be `raw’ matriculants, Combi said. `We aim at real job creation, not poaching people from other jobs and thereby just contributing to the creation of an elitist group of people who move from one company to another,’ Combi said.
He said he expected to create 40 new jobs in the first five new outlets in Cape Town and Johannesburg by June this year. Combi said the Reserve Bank exchange control general manager John Postmus had told him that after running the joint venture for `nine to 12 months, we could make a formal application for our own licence’. Rennies travel chief executive Lilian Boyle said Master Currency would naturally provide direct competition to Rennies’ own foreign exchange operations, `but we are comfortable with that … we are committed to creating job opportunities for others’. Master Currency will charge the same commission as banks `but much less than the hotels’, Combi said. Combi said several bureaux from Europe, mainly Britain, had already expressed interest in setting up shop in South Africa but the Reserve Bank wanted local firms to enter the field first. The first bureau has already opened in Cape Town and provides a 7am to 7pm service, including the sale of travellers cheques and foreign cash as well as the endorsement of passports for the use of credit cards