Hon House Chairperson, when the Inkatha Freedom Party voted on the budget at the beginning of this Parliament, we focused on issues of safety and water security that affect the tourism industry. To date, we
see that there has been little done to achieve security in this regard. Now, we find the report that the department has not submitted the full extent of its fruitless and wasteful expenditure as required by the Public Finance Management Act in section 43(1). One must question how serious this department is - under the leadership of the current Minister. This report is vitally in assessing the true sad state of the department and work on turnaround strategy in the interest of the state.
The potentials of this department were well-known in 2018, these sectors contributed to 1,5 million jobs and R425,8 billion contributed to the economy. Yet, there are figures which cannot be improved upon the unlocked more jobs and higher revenue for South Africa. The committee made two of all remarkable recommendations: that the Minister of Finance should work with the department to reprioritise the budget in order to further unlock the contribution that tourism makes the gross domestic product, GDP, and that the Minister of Tourism develop strategy plans which include the participations and privatisation of villages, townships and small towns.
The IFP proposes that the budget be directed and spent on programme that are targeted for agritourism to support food security and tourism within the rural areas. Tourism in the rural areas needs to be met with enough infrastructures such as roads, formally common areas of trading and most importantly, water infrastructure. The department must also focus on training of people in the rural areas. The IFP supports the BRRR. [Time expired.]