Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Western Cape Tourism Minister Alan Winde has slammed the national Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba for the Immigration Regulations, at Public Hearings on their impact on the tourism industry held today and which continue tomorrow. The media release from the Minister’s office says that ‘… Home Affairs had stuck the band-aid far from the wound: It became immediately clear to all that tests had not been done into the impact of these rules on law-abiding businesses and private citizens, versus those who do defy the rules. While the former are being pushed away, it appears the latter are unaffected. I have called on the National Minister, Mr Malusi Gigaba, to retract his new rules in toto until a full investigation into their impact has been conducted, and until such time as we have the systems in place to back them up. He also needs to find the right mechanisms to address our problems’. The cost to the economy of the Regulations is R10 billion and 21000 jobs, and contradict efforts to grow the tourism industry, he added. The call-centre and film industries are severely effected too. (received via media release from Minister Winde’s office)
* Four Nobel Laureates have cancelled their trip to Cape Town to attend next month’s World Summit of Nobel Laureates, in reaction to the Department of Home Affairs refusing to provide the Dalai Lama with a visa to attend the Summit. The Continue reading →
On Friday evening I attended the launch of the 40th edition of the Diners Club International 2020 South African Wine Guide, at the Table Bay Hotel in the Waterfront, an event that is pretty much the same in format every year, yet was different this year, in the interest of making the event shorter. 
Yesterday I attended a presentation by Graham Beck winemaker of 27 years, Pieter ‘Bubbles’ Ferreira, 