Has Patricia de Lille done Good for tourism?

“Excuse the pun, I don’t think she’s done very Good – and my term of reference is I come from eThekwini, Durban, and the tourist industry has been absolutely decimated there,” said ActionSA’s Alan Beesley, who gave Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille three out of 10 for her performance as minister. 

De Lille – the veteran politician and Good party leader – is one of 32 ministers who recently celebrated 100 days in office in the seventh administration. She was also Tourism Minister in the sixth administration, from May 2023 to May 2024.

As ministers, including De Lille, held media briefings about their 100 days in office, Beesley told Daily Maverick that she and her office needed to focus on the beaches in eThekwini, which has made headlines for sewage spills rather than its once-glorious history as a premium beach holiday spot for families. 

Beesley is one of six ActionSA MPs, and this week, during a media briefing, he was introduced as the party’s parliamentary representative who deals with issues related to economic growth and unemployment. While he does not sit on the tourism oversight committee in Parliament, he is from eThekwini. 

ActionSA declined to be part of the Government of National Unity, which includes de Lille’s party, and it has also stayed out of the so-called progressive opposition caucus. Instead, ActionSA has pledged to be a “constructive opposition in Parliament”. 

Read more: ‘We had to attack first to defend the party,’ says ActionSA’s Mashaba on Tshwane

Speaking on the sidelines of the party’s media briefing this week, Beesley told Daily Maverick that tourism is a challenge with beaches closing because of the sewage crisis, “especially since the beaches are often a family-friendly activity. People book their holidays, they come down there, the beaches are closed and young families can’t take their kids to swim and whatever,” he said. 

“So it’s absolutely devastating,” he said.

Beesley told Daily Maverick of an experience he had on a flight to Cape Town, when he spoke to tourists who had flown directly from Johannesburg to the Mother City – and left without going to Durban. 

“So they skipped Durban totally because they just said it wasn’t worth their while,” he said. 

The  Department of Tourism is to launch its summer season campaign soon. Traditionally, Durban’s beaches next to the warm Indian Ocean have attracted locals and international tourists as a holiday destination.

However, tourism numbers have dropped from 7.4 million visitors in 2015 to only 800,000 visitors this year. As Daily Maverick reported previously, the decline in numbers is due in part to the eThekwini municipality’s failure to deal with its service delivery problems, and high levels of E.coli in the water have led to beach closures. 

In addition, the municipality is now dealing with water rationing. 

Read more: Durban tourism operators fasten seatbelts after yet another blow – water cuts

While service delivery is not in De Lille’s mandate, her department is responsible for marketing South Africa’s tourist destinations. When asked about what the ministry was doing about the situation in eThekwini, her representatives referred Daily Maverick to officials at the Department of Tourism. 

The department’s answers will be added to this story once it has responded. 

“I think when we look at tourism, we’ve got to look at it holistically. So we look at the whole country – you know, Cape Town is doing fine. We’ve got to consider the rest of the country and the rest of the country is not doing well either,” Beesley said. 

Beesley added that tourism added so many jobs to the country – something De Lille echoed during her media briefing. She said tourism contributed 8% to the country’s GDP during the first quarter of the year, which was more than mining or construction. 

“So, it’s massive,” Beesley said. 

Read more: Patricia De Lille gives high five to tourism sector for high impact in job creation and economic growth

When asked what De Lille should focus on in the next five years, Beesley said governance at South African Tourism, which recently came under fire over its board members’ holding 54 meetings in its first six months. 

The board’s chair and deputy promptly resigned after De Lille launched an investigation into why so many meetings were held. Since then, they have slammed de Lille’s handling of the situation. 

“It just comes down to complete lack of governance,” Beesley said.

“But I think a huge focus on getting eThekwini beaches sorted out. I think that would be massive because as a country when people fly into a country they want to go to the game reserves, they want to go to Cape Town, have some wine and they want to swim in the warm Indian Ocean – and that's just been taken out,” he said. 

De Lille ‘gets’ tourism’