A Cape Town-based tour operator has hosted Saudi Arabian princes and international superstars such as Ricky Martin, but has, for two years, had no luck in obtaining a renewal for his operating licence.
“This is incompetence at the highest level,” said owner of the family-owned Wow Cape Town Tours, Rushdi Harper. The company was established in 2007 and Harper’s vision is to be “a leading tour operator and ground handler in South Africa within the next five years, through innovation and perseverance” and to impart skills and expertise to inspire and mentor small, medium and micro enterprises by creating an environment of development and job creation.
That’s if he doesn’t drown in the reams of red tape issued by the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR). Harper told Tourism Update that he was being asked over and over to re-submit documents that were reported missing by the NPTR.
“I have, to date, submitted and re-submitted over 50 documents to the NPTR – all of which costs time and money,” said Harper. Now, countless follow-up e-mails from him are simply ignored.
Since calling for responses from operators on what one operator anonymously called “criminal sabotage” of the industry, TU has heard countless stories of frustration similar to Harper’s, with Ian Mitchell from Ashtons Tours highlighting that his company had submitted an application merely for a change of particulars and was still waiting for news on this.
“How long can that really take to do?” he asked, pointing out that weekly enquiries were falling on deaf ears.
Tourist guide, Garth Johnson, said the government “powers that be” just do not care. “From minibus taxis to large tour operators to small individual companies struggling to make ends meet, it is a blight on government that they are unable to unlock this mess.”
Tourism Update has undertaken to share the human side of this crisis by encouraging operators and guides to share how NPTR delays have affected them.
