South African Tourism Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa has threatened to introduce a quota system to ensure that more black tour guides are hired in the tourism industry, according to the government news service BuaNews.
The service quoted from a speech to Parliament — where he delivered his budget vote to the National Assembly on Thursday and his Budget policy speech to the National Council of Provinces on Friday — in which he said that the industry failed to realise that the diversity of South Africans was what many tourists found extremely attractive.
He said he was disappointed that the industry was “in general” not employing black tour guides.
Unless the industry responded positively, the minister said he would announce a quota system on September 27 — World Tourism Day.
Moosa noted that 40% of all procurement of his department went to black owned companies. “We will increase this to 50% by the end of the year,” he said. – I-Net Bridge