No

Challenge

Breakdown of challenge

1

Access to tourism assets and infrastructure:

· Lack of an inequitable access to CMT assets including the ocean and lack of infrastructure exists, as a result of environment restrictions. -The area lacks good roads and transportation is thus very difficult. Services like the provision of water and sanitation (toilets), refuse removal and facilities, such as braai areas are insufficient.

· It appears that IWPA and Amatikulu management are not allowing the black community the same access to the ocean, rivers and dams within the park as they do to their white counterparts.

· Most of the land (circa 200km) is under the jurisdiction of the IWPA limiting government’s ability to roll out infrastructure.

· The IWPA reports to the national government, leaving local government powerless to address certain infrastructure and accessibility issues.

· Among these are poor estuary management; Lake St Lucia’s mouth has not been dredged, affecting the ecosystem and the poor communities that rely on the lake for their livelihoods.

· Phelani at the uMfolozi River Mouth was closed and had not been dredged. The argument used in other river mouths is that these mouths must not be disturbed because sharks must be allowed to breed. Participants questioned whether there were indeed sharks breeding at the uMfolozi river mouth (See ( Dickens, 2014 ) for more on sharks).

· A result of the river mouth closure is the spillage of the mine chemicals into local vegetation and food plantation fields. The mussel fishermen and farmers in the area also reported the same as the number of mussels growing in the area has dwindled due to chemical spillages into the river. This environmental impact of the mine appears to be unreported and unchallenged.

2

Lack of CMT skills and CMT value chain awareness

· government or the municipality are not providing the community with the necessary skills to develop themselves and where these are sparingly offered, they were provided unfairly (inequitable access).

· Lack of knowledge about compliance and business sustainability was also discussed. There was concern that the municipality is lacking in skills development for the domestic industries and is not providing CMT business development.

3

Lack of coordinated structures

· Most of the issues within CMT are systemic issues that will require participation of a large group of stakeholders to confront, for example, lack of access to the ocean.

· This problem is deemed to be the result of regulations by IWPA which affect spatial planning by the municipalities which cannot build the required infrastructure, thus negatively impacting on local businesses.

4

Enterprise Level Challenges

· Funding – lack of funds to be precise

· Lack of awareness, knowledge, and experience in running CMT businesses, available infrastructure and tourist products/information.

· Some rural land belongs to the Ingonyama Trust, and the communities’ lack of title deeds means that people cannot use their land or houses for collateral, which makes it difficult or impossible to access funding or financial support from banks.

· The Tourism Transformation Fund Application Form is too complicated for communities to understand and fill correctly.