SHARON HAMMOND, Nelspruit | Thursday 2.35pm.
MPUMALANGA launched its own Tourism Safety and Security Task Group this week in response to growing overseas concerns about crime in South Africa.
Secretary of the task group, Driekie Venter, said on Thursday that though the crime rate in the province was not as high as in Gauteng, the task group wanted to take proactive measures.
“We want to get systems in place now, before we get as bad as Johannesburg,” she explained.
She said each province was establishing such task groups as part of a national effort to allay foreign fears about the crime situation.
“It’s not really a matter of how bad the current crime situation is, but how bad it seems overseas,” she said.
“If you go overseas, the first thing people ask is if you own a weapon,” she added.
The provincial task group has 15 members who represent hotels, lodges, the Mpumalanga Tourism Authority, police and Business Against Crime.
Venter said one of its first projects would be identifying target areas in the province where special guard forces would be established to work with police in preventing crime against tourists.
The task group would also install a 24-hour help line for tourists who are victims of crime. –African Eye News Service