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When two Spanish tourists decided to visit South Africa in March, they did not expect to leave with €8 000 less in possessions and a traumatic experience that still affects them. Diego San Román and Laura Fabre write to President Cyril Ramaphosa and ask whether he is really serious about tourism?
Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa,
Crime is killing tourism in South Africa.
We note your latest newsletter (published 22 May, "Tourism is making a strong recovery post-lockdown") to your people, calling on the country to welcome tourists and support the industry.
But how are they supposed to do so if you can't even keep visitors to your country safe and free from crime?
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It should be celebrated that tourism provides a much-needed injection of cash and job opportunities into your economy.
Tourism is a very simple equation:
It is literally one of the easiest ways for your beautiful country to provide a livelihood to the millions of unemployed people. It requires basic hospitality and interpersonal skills for a tourist to feel welcome and enjoy the natural beauty of your country. And so many South Africans do this job exceptionally well.
But, President Ramaphosa, your government is failing to keep its end of the bargain: safety.
Unfortunately, we are victims of the growing crime wave your people have been forced to deal with in recent years.
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Visiting South Africa in March, we were held captive and robbed at gunpoint while staying at a luxury lodge near the Kruger National Park.
Beyond the psychological trauma of this ordeal and losing more than €8 000 (R166 335) worth of possessions, we were lucky to escape with our lives.
How has this level of violence become normalised in your society?
In the absence of your answer, we can only draw conclusions based on our horrid experience.
We feel completely let down by the South African Police Service, whose indifferent and lackadaisical approach to investigating this crime speaks volumes. The officer that arrived at the scene hardly bothered to take our statements or even just simply listen to what happened to us.
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We also struggled to get a case number, with the officers at the Nelspruit police station unwilling, unable or uninterested in helping us.
The lodge's owner has also fobbed us off in refusing to address their own lapses in security that led to this incident. Dealing with the matter nonchalantly, they reminded us that crime is an unfortunate reality in South Africa. They were seemingly more concerned with protecting their business' reputation.
President Ramaphosa, we ask you with tears in our eyes: how can you be serious about tourism when this is how you treat tourists?
- Diego San Román and Laura Fabre experienced the bitter face of tourism in March this year
