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Afriforum lashes out at Tourism department’s ‘gross misunderstanding’ of court decision

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Lobby group Afriforum has lashed out at the Tourism Department over what it says is a gross misunderstanding of Friday’s Constitutional Court judgement.

Afriforum approached the Constitutional Court, after the High Court dismissed its application against Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane.

This related to her decision to provide support to distressed firms and establishments in the tourism sector based on broad-based BEE codes. The Minister released a statement welcoming the Constitutional Court’s dismissal of the lobby group’s application saying the court had rendered the joint application insufficient and that it was not in the interest of justice for the court to consider it.

However, Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel says it was not a joint application and that the application from Solidarity was not dismissed, but that it should go through a different process through the courts.

“Afriforum regards it as unfortunate that the Minister of Tourism blatantly lied when she said that Afriforum’s case at the Constitutional Court has been dismissed. It is not correct the Solidarity case that she refers to does not mention Afriforum in any way. The fact is this judgement in the Solidarity case only says that the court will not hear the case now it should go through a different process – and it did not take into account the merit at all.”

In the statement below, the Department of Tourism hails the courts decision as a victory.

Minister concerned about job losses

Kubayi-Ngubane has expressed concern over job losses in the sector due to fears of further spread of the coronavirus.

She says jobs are being lost in the tourism sector, as major events continue to be cancelled to help stem the spread of the virus.

“We can’t say generally there aren’t going to be job losses, there are job losses as we speak. Those who support the tourism sector, either temporarily or on a contract basis, are already starting to feel it because they are going to sit at home and there are no major events that are happening.”

“Those who are going to be part of the La Liga football summit in Durban next week, are affected because they were supposed to be working next week, and they are not working. So such things are going to happen. The issue for us is to be able to evaluate how much impact and our response to it, so we can limit the effects to ordinary South Africans,” Kubayi-Ngubane adds.

In the video below, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane speaks to Morning Live in Limpopo:

 

 

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