LETTER: Derek Hanekom’s comments about Day Zero scaring tourists were disingenuous
The tourism minister should admit that national government and the unabridged birth certificate policy are behind the tourism decline, writes DA MP Leon Basson
In a recent article published on this site, remarks are attributed Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom in which he states that messaging on Day Zero scared off tourists. These comments are highly disingenuous and we must set the record straight on this. First, Day Zero was not a scare tactic as the minister implies; it was a call for responsible citizenship in the face of a real, not an imagined, crisis. The City of Cape Town, along with the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and other parts of the country have seen significant declines in dam levels because of low rainfall and infrastructure neglect by the Department of Water and Sanitation. SA as a whole faces a water problem and we must all be conscious of our use of this scarce resource. Despite this challenge, it is untrue that the City of Cape Town has seen a huge drop in tourism numbers because of awareness campaigns alerting the public to Day Zero. Cape Town continues to be the country’s leading tourist destination and has continued to draw v...
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