News

16 August 2007
Training and strategic intervention in the Eastern Cape

The Pondoland hiking trail between Port St John and the Mkambathi Game Reserve on the northern Wild Coast of the former Transkei traverses a region characterised by a common paradox of poverty. It contains some of the richest combinations of scenic beauty and biodiversity along with some of the highest levels of poverty in South Africa.

In an effort to alleviate that poverty through tourism, the European Union sponsored the construction of six community owned camps along the hiking trail. This approach failed to generate a significant number of jobs or pro-poor impact primarily because the communities did not have the skills or the marketing ability to manage and operate tourism businesses of this nature.

In an effort to remedy the problem, the EU contracted a team that is currently involved with the ASL programme to devise ways to make the camps and the hiking trail function more effectively on a commercial basis.

This was achieved by the running of a transparent and competitive bid to attract private investors into a fully empowered partnership with the trusts that represent the people living in and around the hiking trail and its camps. This method resulted in the appointment of Drifters Adventours (one of southern Africa’s biggest overland tour and lodge operators) as the communities’ preferred partner.

The ASL, with additional funding raised from the UNWTO conducted or are in the process of conducting the following activities in partnership with the communities and Drifters:

•    Rapid visits to all trusts and construction sites, check on key issues arising, assessment of key issues arising for trusts out of construction phase.
•    Meetings with Drifters Adventours to identify key issues arising out of construction phase and support required to ensure smooth renovation of sites.
•    Assessment of skills needed by trusts to manage partnership with Drifters: revision of trust deeds, business plan, revision of contracts, workshops around these.
•    Assessment of skills required to ensure local people benefit from construction phase: check on construction processes, jobs created, training provided, local people used, negotiations with developers to ensure local benefit is maximised from construction phase.
•    The developer is obliged to provide construction training and skills development.
•    Check on recruitment policies of private partner and skills development programme being prepared by partner.
•    Implement specific training for trust members in inter alia: recruitment of local residents for jobs created by tourism enterprise, participation as directors in new operating company, corporate governance principles.
•    Certification and formal qualifications for skills provided above.

The five communities involved have formed trusts with the assistance of the ASL Programme and its technical partner Webber Wentzel Bowens Attorneys.

A workshop was conducted by Luvuyo Willie of WWB, which aimed to:
•    Outline and address the workings of a trust, including duties, benefits, roles and responsibilities of trustees
•    Clarify the relationship with other community institutions
•    Establish a trust forum

Vusi Klaas facilitated discussions between the communities and Drifters regarding progress on the camp developments, setting objectives and gaining a clear understanding of what was expected of the different parties.

Tourism Shine CC conducted Theta-accredited SA Host and business management training with the members of the Trusts. S A Host is a program designed to enhance the ability of anyone in the services industry to deal with customers positively. It is a customer orientation program and the evaluation assessment that is done at the end of the program qualifies the participant to receive S A Host badge and S A Host Certificate.