Small to medium entrepreneurs in the tourism sector in Mpumalanga are crying foul after not being able to access government’s COVID-19 relief fund.
The entrepreneurs have been seriously affected by the lockdown regulations. Tour guide operators and those doing craft around Hazyview and the Kruger National Park claim that they have not received the promised funds from government.
Last year, the national government allocated about R11 million to the province to assist such businesses. This year, the provincial government set aside R10 million to further assist businesses as COVID-19 continues to affect their operations.
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The small town of Hazyview adjacent to the Kruger National Park and other tourist attraction sites lure a lot of visitors into the area. Local people saw an opportunity to make a living from these offerings. Some are tour guide operators and some sell craftwork to the tourists who descend to this side of town. However, COVID-19 has negatively affected these people.
The COVID-19 government relief fund has also not benefitted some of them. They say despite applying for both the national and provincial relief funds, they have been unsuccessful. They have pleaded with the provincial government to consider them. Some say they are the sole breadwinners in their households.
“There was national money which has been allocated and provincial which has been allocated, most of guides did not get that money there is tourism at all, what happens now we are at Phabeni gate doing what we call hop-in guide wait for clients and charge them less. This COVID thing has affected our household because we are unable to provide for our families,” says a tour guide.
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The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) says out of the 700 applications received by the province about 560 of them were approved after assessment. MTPA’s CEO Boy Nobunga says 500 of them have been paid the relief funds.
“Only 60 are remaining and the 60 that were remaining had some compliance issues that they had to attend to and the committee sat the day before yesterday and it is finalised. All of the applications and the 60 that are remaining will receive their monies next week and that other week. After that we would have paid everybody that qualified and had applied,” says Nobunga.
Successful individuals are being given R10 000 by the province. Only those who didn’t benefit from the national government relief fund are being catered for by the province.
