Hon Chairperson, Minister of Tourism, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, Members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, the ANC supports the Budget Vote of Tourism.

President Jacob Zuma emphasised in his state of the nation address that unemployment, poverty and inequality are the major national challenges in our country.

Many tourism stakeholders expected more focus on tourism, specifically because it can mobilise for the eradication of poverty and job creation. The President in his speech also identified tourism as one of the job drivers in our country. He also focused on the need to promote economic growth based on infrastructural development and the acceleration of job creation. Also, he made repeated references to the National Development Plan 2030 in his speech.

The Minister of Tourism said that tourism is a vital component of the economy and a key part of the New Growth Path. Tourism contributed R190 billion indirect and R70 billion direct growth to the gross domestic product, GDP, of this country. Tourism grew at the rate of an impressive 10,7% between January and September 2012, which is higher than the global average of 4% for last year.

In aligning tourism with the National Development Plan, the NDP, tourism is identified as one of the main important drivers of the economy and job creators, as the President has alluded to. The National Development Plan target is to create an additional 11 million jobs by 2030, and the department's target is to create 22500 additional jobs and 499 billion by 2020. The Department of Tourism is up to the task.

The programme of Policy and Knowledge Services is to improve the livelihood of all South Africans and to monitor and evaluate the tourism sector's strategies, policies and initiatives. The department will also engage with public entities and the private sector through a number of interventions based on the National Tourism Sector Strategy.

The department also targeted the local municipalities as strategic spheres of government in developing the tourism mandate. The Local Government Support programme will be implemented to ensure capacitybuilding in all municipalities.

The ANC recommended that the department make sure that the tourism co- ordination structure such as the local government bureaux be supported to build capacity at local level in order to promote employment opportunities for the poor in hospitality skills and to help local communities, in particular small-scale farmers and vendors, to become part of the supply chain to enable poor entrepreneurs to work in tourism businesses. Tourism must also unlock opportunities for economic gain and other livelihood benefits for poor communities and must focus on projects that spread benefits and income to communities across the country.

Today is the last day for the Tourism Indaba in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The committee commends the work done by the department and the Minister for putting the participants in tourism together to secure their role in domestic tourism. We wish to see the provinces releasing more resources to promote tourism in their provinces.

Minister, we understand that the department is planning to have the mission of institutionalising tourism supported. The Department of International Relations and Co-operation has raised concern about a complaint from international embassies about South Africa having a lot of missions that are sometimes unco-ordinated. The provinces and municipalities would visit the same countries with the intention of establishing similar relations. How will the Minister ensure that the document is inclusive of all spheres of government to stop duplications?

In conclusion, we hope that the department will boost their efforts, as there is room for improvement, and continue to forge success for tourism in the country. I thank you. [Applause.]