Tariq Mellet | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Increasingly one wonders what exactly Grant Pascoe, City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing, has achieved for Cape Town in respect of Tourism, Events and Marketing since he took on this portfolio last year, with no success recorded to date, and with criticism rather than praise levelled at the Councillor. Given his increasing twit-twat on Twitter, one wonders what the Councillor does all day!

Last week the Councillor decided to look for some publicity for himself, perhaps given our criticism of him on this blog, and issued a lightweight media release, slamming the Department of Home Affairs for refusing permission for cruise ships to dock in the V&A Waterfront with immediate effect. He made all the right noises about the detrimental effect this would have on tourism, but did not offer to get involved to make a difference, which he should have done, given his Tourism portfolio! In the Cape Times he was quoted as follows: “We are obviously uneasy about the possible impact of this ruling on Cape Town’s status and reputation as a cruise tourism destination as well as on tourism revenues to the city. The City notes concerns about security risks underlying the decision. However, we will discuss the ruling with the relevant authorities to find a way to best serve Cape Town’s tourism interests, without compromising the status of the port as a secured area.” There have been no subsequent reports of Councillor Pascoe and/or Cape Town Tourism (CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold is on maternity leave until April) meeting with the harbour or immigration authorities, conveniently leaving this to his provincial counterpart Tourism Minister Alan Winde, who has slammed the decision, and has already met with officials.

The Department of Home Affairs’ Director of Immigration: Maritime & Aviation Ports Western Cape, Tariq Mellet, who was responsible for the cruise line berthing directive last week, took exception to Councillor Pascoe’s media statement (surprisingly he has not reacted to Minister Winde’s media comments, as far as we are aware), and slammed Councillor Pascoe in a 3-page detailed document for ‘having a poor understanding of the issues involved at the Cape Town Harbour’, writing about the cruise ship issue on Politicsweb. Adding insult to injury, Mellet attacks the Councillor in writing: “Perhaps if the City Council took a greater interest in playing a role in Cape Town Harbour, its development and in Passenger Line Tourism he (sic) would understand the issues at play. He (sic) has even the basic facts wrong”!

Mellet explains at length the complexities of cruise liner berthing in Cape Town, saying that cruise liner berthing in the V&A Waterfront has been an occasional occurrence, mainly because Duncan Dock or Eastern Mole have not been available, as a ‘commercial convenience’. “Anyone looking at the real facts and bothering to consult the role-players charged with clearing passengers, would have clearly seen that cruise ship tourists are getting a raw deal”, he added! The Department of Home Affairs has the final say as to which ports are entry points for international tourists, he emphasised. Being welcoming to cruise tourists, yet offering them security is a ‘careful balance’. Mellet says that cruise tourism could be four times as large as it is currently, if Cape Town offered a more secure and attractive cruise liner berth, a responsibility which Councillor Pascoe should be addressing with urgency. He states that the berthing directive had been communicated to the port authority in December, but had been ignored. He slates the uproar about the berthing, writing that the cruise tourists will visit the V&A Waterfront anyway, and that they may visit other areas in Cape Town too, writing about ‘being controlled by a greedy few and some of the scams that arise in the closed environment of the harbour‘. He writes that Jetty 2 in the Waterfront is only 195 meters long, and therefore cannot berth larger ships. One of the last paragraphs summarises what the Department of Home Affairs is trying to protect, and one wonders what Mellet refers to, given that his tirade was directed against Councillor Pascoe: “The present furore over Home Affairs ensuring compliance with legislation at Cape Town Harbour seems to have less to do with the V&A Waterfront venue when the facts are scrutinised and more about parties with vested interests wanting to buck the system and wanting a continuation of lax security in an environment where a host of scams and dodgy activities have been thriving for years”!

Councillor Pascoe had egg on his face last year, when he tried to shave his budget by cutting the funding of Design Indaba (after an outcry he quickly reinstated the funding). He has also been criticised for the loss of the Saracens versus Biarritz Heineken Cup game scheduled for Cape Town, not getting agreement at which of Newlands Stadium and Cape Town Stadium the game would have been played at, due to a conflict between the City of Cape Town (Councillor Pascoe’s portfolio) and the Western Cape Rugby Union, which cost Cape Town the tourism benefit of thousands of supporters who would have travelled here to see the teams play! To try and save face, the Councillor Tweeted some photographs last week of Saracens practicing at Cape Town Stadium, the team already having bought the flight tickets at the time that the Stadium wrangle took place.

We have written extensively how the Councillor rudely refuses to return telephone calls, or to reply to e-mails and Tweets, when we have had some pressing questions for the Councillor about the R40 million budget (from ratepayers’ monies) allocated to Cape Town Tourism for this financial year, of which little meaningful expenditure is visible. We have also left (unanswered) messages for Deputy Mayor Ian Nielson, who controls the Council finances, and cannot get a response from the City of Cape Town about how it evaluates the efficiency of Cape Town Tourism’s performance and its expenditures, and how it allowed the appointment of an Australian consultant with a not so blemish-free background!

The Councillor seems to have lots of time in his day, when he is not attending the odd Council meeting, having taken to Twitter, Tweeting incessantly, mainly about cricket and general non-Tourism related matters. He has shown his lack of morals and ethics, and his naivety as far as the law of defamation is concerned, by re-Tweeting defamatory Tweets earlier this week.

One wonders how Mayor Patricia de Lille evaluates the efficiency of her Mayoral Committee and the budget expenditure. One wonders how the Mayor selected Councillor Pascoe for the Tourism, Events and Marketing portfolio, given that he has no past tourism or marketing experience, having been a DA Councillor for Mitchell’s Plain for ten years, serving on the Mayoral Committee with the Social Development and Special Projects portfolio in 2010, something his incomplete theology studies may have been more suitable for! Yesterday the Councillor appears to have won some political brownie points for having helped the DA win a city by-election with an overwhelming majority.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com twitter: @WhaleCottage

What looked like a promising five months as far as cruise liners visiting Cape Town is concerned has led to a disaster for the V&A Waterfront, its retailers, and the Cape Town tourism industry, in having permission to allow cruise liners to dock at the Waterfront quays just having been withdrawn, due to security concerns.

Just a few days ago Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan was interviewed on Kfm 94,5 about the boost to tourism from eleven cruise liners arriving in Cape Town over the next five months, including The World (returning today from a visit over New Year), The Silver Wind (arriving on 14 and then again on 24 January, and on 3 and 13 February), the Queen Mary 2 (24 – 26 January), The Seaborne (3 – 5 February), the Silver Whisperer (4 – 5 February), the Silver Spirit (14 February), the Explorer (24 – 29 February), the National Geographic Explorer (24 – 26 March), the Athena (1-3 May), the Asuka (3 May), and the Ocean Princess (5 – 7 May). Almost all the cruise liners were booked to dock in the V&A Waterfront.

The shock decision to refuse permission for cruise liners to dock in the V&A Waterfront with immediate effect will seriously affect business for the V&A traders in particular, who would have experienced a boom period, given the cruise tourists’ ability to spend money on their dock visits. The permission has been withdrawn, on the basis of security, passenger liners only permitted from now onwards to ‘dock in the secured Duncan Dock area without free public access’, wrote Tariq Mellet, ‘Director Immigration WC (Maritime and Aviation)’ to Piet Grobler, the Provincial Co-ordinator: Border Control Operational Co-ordinating Committee.

In reaction to this directive, which affects the arrival of The World today, V&A Waterfront CEO David Green has directed an urgent appeal to provincial Tourism Minister Alan Winde to assist in overturning this decision: “We have indirectly received the notification attached from the Director of Immigration Western Cape. It indicates that passenger ships cannot berth in the V & A and receive Immigration services for “security reasons,” as “the berth is open to the public.” The apparent decision is based upon information which is factually incorrect. It is and has been routine practise ( for many years ) that the Jetty is sealed off when passenger liners ( and indeed Warships) berth. Today we have been advised that “ The World “ a passenger ship, which berthed with us over New Year and was due to return tomorrow, on receiving this notification, has taken the decision to berth in the main Port. The World is effectively a top end floating apartment building where the wealthy owners of the apartments “vote” where “in the world” they would like the ship to berth – they chose to bring in the New Year in Cape Town berthed in front of the Table Bay Hotel. This decision will have a direct impact on the revenue to the V & A Waterfront and to our retailers. I do not need to explain to you the grossly inferior passenger experience offered in the port and aside from the immediate loss of revenue I am sure this treatment will undoubtedly discourage further visits. I would be grateful of your assistance to overturn this ill thought out and highly detrimental decision”.

The assistance of national Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, may also be sought to overturn the decision. For years the inadequate facilities for cruise liner arrivals in Cape Town have been a deterrent to a valuable tourism source, yet nothing has been done by the City of Cape Town or the Western Cape government to address this deficiency. Given the number and calibre of the cruise liners scheduled to arrive in Cape Town, the time has come to urgently address this issue.

POSTSCRIPT 12/1: It appears that our esteemed City of Cape Town Councillor for Tourism, Events and Marketing, Grant Pascoe, is polishing his image, now making media comments. Today he issued a media statement about the banning of the cruise liners in the V&A Waterfront, which we wrote about yesterday already! One would have thought that Councillor Pascoe would have spent the time to meet with the port authorities, to resolve the issue on behalf of tourism in Cape Town! This is his statement in the Cape Times: “The City of Cape Town notes with concern the potential negative impact that the Department of Home Affairs’ recent ruling barring cruise liners from the V&A Waterfront will have on tourism. The Department’s Director of Immigration for the Western Cape ruled that passenger liners will no longer be allowed to dock in the V&A Waterfront. With immediate effect, all passenger liners are to dock in the secured Duncan Dock. At least 13 cruise ships (including the Silver Wind, National Geographic Explorer and Queen Mary) are scheduled to visit Cape Town between January and May 2012. Most of these ships would have docked in the V&A Waterfront. In 2011, 19 visiting cruise ships accounted for approximately 18 000 visitors to the V&A Waterfront. “We are obviously uneasy about the possible impact of this ruling on Cape Town’s status and reputation as a cruise tourism destination as well as on tourism revenues to the city. The City notes concerns about security risks underlying the decision. However, we will discuss the ruling with the relevant authorities to find a way to best serve Cape Town’s tourism interests, without compromising the status of the port as a secured area,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing, Councillor Grant Pascoe.”

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage