“It certainly came as a bit of a shock,” says Trevor Hewett, Owner of African Pride Tours, who discovered just a day before this article appeared that his name had been included and circulated as one of the Satsa board directors being proposed to replace the current leadership by the group of concerned Satsa members. He explained some concerns had been brought to his attention and he had agreed to look through the information. “I didn’t say I’d put my hand up to be a director and there was no discussion whatsoever to this effect,” says Hewett, adding that he immediately wrote to both parties, disassociating himself from the whole movement.
He says that no one is denying that constitutionally or legally, Satsa has been operating in a “grey area” – but the underlying modus operandi of Satsa has always been that the structure should work in the best interests of the membership. “My big concern is that this could massively damage Satsa’s credibility. We have a very strong industry voice at the moment. You only have to look at the visa issues and upcoming VAT issues to realise how strong Satsa is and how much we have to lose if everything goes wrong,” he adds.
