BY SIFISO NHLABATSI
MBABANE – Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini has called for the disruption of outdated systems and processes that continue to frustrate tourists, investors and small businesses, saying Government must move with urgency to fix bottlenecks in the tourism sector.
The Prime Minister said this when delivering remarks at the second Tourism Nkwe Conference held at Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane on Thursday, September 17.
He said Government’s approach should involve challenging systems that no longer served the needs of emaSwati, tourists and investors.
The Prime Minister singled out the e-visa system, e-hailing services, seven-seater vehicles and payment systems as areas where Government needed to respond to realities on the ground.
“I have not been shy about the fact that some have called my approach to Government ‘disruptive leadership.’ I embrace that description without apology,” Dlamini said.
He explained that disruption, as he understood it, did not mean disorder but changing systems that had become inefficient.
“Where a system serves only itself and not the people, it must be disrupted. Where a process protects inefficiency rather than the traveller, the investor or the small entrepreneur, it must be disrupted,” he said.
E-VISA DELAYS
The Prime Minister said the e-visa platform had modernised the process of visitors entering the country, but Government was aware of concerns raised by the tourism industry regarding its reliability.
He said payment processing and turnaround times had not always matched the Government’s ambition for the system.
The Prime Minister said the concerns were particularly noticeable during peak periods such as Umhlanga, when processing delays and payment failures could affect visitors.
He also acknowledged the absence of a manual fallback system while the platform was being refined.
“We hear the concerns raised about processing delays around peak periods such as Umhlanga, about payment failures, and about the absence of a manual fallback while the platform is refined,” Dlamini said.
He stressed that the situation required urgent action.
“I want to be direct: a visa system that frustrates the very visitors we are courting is a contradiction we cannot sustain, and Government is committed to resolving it with urgency, not indefinite patience,” he said.
Stakeholders had disclosed how they had to wait for five days to get a visa allowing them entry into the country and how some had to be stuck at the airport upon arrival. An example was made that a person who is in the Democratic Republic of Congo on business and suddenly wants to make a quick stop in Eswatini for business purposes may be forced to abandon that trip due to the lengthy waiting period for visa processing.
E-HAILING, SEVEN-SEATERS
The Prime Minister also said tourism-related transport had changed, with e-hailing services and seven-seater vehicles becoming part of how visitors and local travellers moved around the country.
However, he said the regulatory framework had not kept pace with these developments.
“E-hailing services and seven-seater vehicles have become part of how tourism actually functions on the ground, yet our regulatory framework has lagged behind that reality,” Dlamini said.
He said this demonstrated the need for Government to examine regulations and systems that could potentially hinder the growth of the tourism industry.
Dlamini further pointed to developments in the country’s payment system as another example of the structural changes required.
He said the Eswatini Payment Switch, which already had Fast Payments flowing, would introduce further developments including Open Banking and Card, POS and ATM Switching.
According to the Prime Minister, these developments presented an opportunity for hospitality businesses to process domestic and international transactions with fewer difficulties. Some stakeholders who were present during the conference from the transport industry sector disclosed how the bottlenecks have affected them. They said this has resulted into tourists opting to use transport from South Africa to get around in the country which is something that has denied Emaswati an opportunity to thrive in this sector.
TOURISM DATA
The Prime Minister also called for greater accuracy in measuring the contribution of tourism to the economy.
He said Government was building a Tourism Satellite Account but warned that the figures should accurately reflect the sector, including informal and small operators.
“If our data does not yet fully capture the informal and small-operator side of this industry, then our public narrative of ‘growth’ risks obscuring the real conditions faced by the men and women who work in it every day,” he said.
He said disruptive leadership required Government to address shortcomings in measurement before celebrating milestones.
“Disruptive leadership demands that we fix the measurement before we celebrate the milestone,” Dlamini said.
The Prime Minister maintained that tourism remained critical to Government’s ambition of achieving double-digit annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.
He said Government’s commitment to the Nkwe Programme of Action and the Grand Plan for National Transformation remained unchanged.
“Our target of double-digit annual GDP growth has not changed, and neither has our conviction that tourism must be one of the engines that carries us there,” Dlamini said.
He challenged Ministries, parastatals and tourism stakeholders to adopt the same approach by identifying systems that were not working and fixing them.
“None of this is about criticism for its own sake. It is about the discipline to look honestly at what is not working, and the courage to change it quickly rather than manage it slowly,” he said.
Dlamini said the Tourism Nkwe Conference should produce practical and measurable recommendations.
He challenged participants to return to the next conference with evidence of implementation.
“This time, I look to all of us to return next year able to report not just what we discussed, but what we disrupted, fixed and delivered,” he said.
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