A SURPRISE decision by a sub-committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs last week to stop all foreign tour guides and bus drivers entering Namibia, has been described as a "cataclysm" for Namibia's tourism industry.
About 42 overland truck and bus drivers and tour guides wanting to enter Namibia from South Africa on Wednesday and Thursday last week were turned away, according to reliable sources in the industry. This resulted in about 1 000 pre-booked tourists not being able to enter Namibia. The figure could be higher.
Tourism authorities and The Namibian were swamped with calls and e-mails from local and foreign tour operators in which they aired their concerns - the move "preposterous" and "tourism suicide".
The "ban", which lasted for about three days - from Wednesday to Friday - was in the form of stopping and nullifying all temporary work permits for foreign guides and drivers.
The apparent reason for this unilateral decision by the committee, chaired by Director of Immigration Allison Hishekwa, was so that "Namibian guides should be used", and also to stop foreigners gaining temporary work permits under the guise of tour guides and drivers from entering Namibia and then staying in the country after the permits expired.
"We have just been informed that all South African guides applying for temporary working permits in Namibia will be denied outright and that, I quote, 'we should use Namibian guides'," Ellery Worth of Drifters, a major tour operator in South Africa that runs several overland tours into and through Namibia, stated in an e-mail.
He said "the consequences of this are massive", not only for his company, but also for the Namibian economy.
"All the quad-biking, sky-diving and other tourism-orientated activities will be dramatically affected if our tours are refrained from Namibia on the basis that we can't have our guides operate in the country. This is not to mention bookings at all the national parks and local camps. The ramifications are huge," he said.
According to him, Namibia does not even have enough guides to allocate to foreign operators to use on tours.
"If it doesn't change, operators such as ourselves will have to consider scratching Namibia off as a travel destination for guided overland safaris," he warned.
"On our side we are looking at boycotting Namibia at Indaba and the possibility of a reciprocal agreement with Namibian guides in South Africa," he stated.
Jacqueline Asheeke, CEO of the Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations (Fenata), said the "glitch" caused much damage to Namibia's tourism sector - with ripple effects even to other SADC countries, and that, "with the electronic age", the situation has hit websites and is spiralling out of control.
She said the Trans-frontier Conservation Area Protocol and the SADC Protocol, of which Namibia is a signatory, encourage open borders for tourism exchange and that the decision was contrary to these agreements.
"For decisions like this, the right channels must be followed, like taking the proposal to the Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs first, and from there to the Minister and then to Cabinet and involving all the affected Ministries and other stakeholders," she said.
The Namibian has learned that the decision was immediately called off by those in the higher echelons on Friday and foreign drivers and guides were allowed to enter Namibia again on temporary work permits "until further notice".
According to Digu/Naobeb, CEO of the Namibia Tourism Board, a high-level meeting will be held soon to consider the consequences and the way forward regarding the decision.
Tour operators, locally and abroad, fear possibility of such a "surprise decision" being implemented again. The feeling is that the trustworthiness of Namibia's tourism industry has been compromised.
By Adam Hartman.
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