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Engineering News reports that trade union Solidarity and civil rights group AfriForum were scheduled to be in the North Gauteng High Court on 13 April for the hearing of their case against the Department of Tourism and Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane.
The two institutions instituted legal action after unsuccessful talks with the Minister about opening up funding through the Tourism Equity Fund (TEF) to all tourism businesses. The R1.2-billion TEF was launched by the department in January, in partnership with the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, as a new financial support mechanism to stimulate investment and transformation in the tourism sector. As a combination of grant funding, concessionary loans and debt finance, the fund caters to the specific needs of black-owned businesses to acquire equity, invest in new developments or expand existing developments. But, Solidarity legal head Anton van der Bijl explained the basis of their objection as follows: “To drive transformation and other racial ideologies in the midst of a pandemic that has devastated an industry shows indifference to the need of the very sector the Minister has been tasked to support. Right now, entrepreneurs and employees in this industry really need the government’s support, but government is choosing to put its own agenda above the needs of its citizens.”
- Read the original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
- Read Solidarity’s press statement regarding this matter at Polity
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page