The City of Joburg and the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) have responded after cricket journalist Peter Della Penna posted a scathing review of South Africa and Johannesburg.
The cricket journalist recently visited South Africa and spent three weeks in Johannesburg covering the US at the Women’s U19 Cricket World Cup.
Penna described his visit as a “tour from hell” and said he understood why dozens of cricketers were desperate to leave the country to join Major League Cricket in the US.
He posted his many complaints on social media platform Facebook on January 27 and they have since received 476 shares.
“If you are thinking of going to Johannesburg/South Africa for any reason, think long and hard before making your decision. My recommendation would be… DO NOT GO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! …I can confidently say that Johannesburg/South Africa is the least safe, most broken down, most corrupt and dystopian place I’ve ever been to. There are way way way way better places to take your tourist dollars, whether elsewhere in the African continent,” said Penna.
IOL Travel reached out to Fedhasa and the City of Joburg for their response to Penna’s rant.
City of Joburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said that from a destination marketing perspective, one cannot discount or trivialise a visitor’s account or experience.
Modingoane said it was indeed disturbing and distressing to read Penna’s scathing Facebook diatribe about his visit and stay in Joburg; however, it was necessary to call for some perspective not only about the state of Johannesburg, but also about how different people experience it.
“Since this is a response to a rant from a cricket writer, one is tempted to highlight some international sporting events hosted by Joburg over the years to promote the City as the sports destination of choice. These include, but are not limited to, the Soweto Marathon, Kyalami 9-Hour Race and Virgin Active 947 Ride Joburg, which is the second-largest timed cycling event in the world. All these events have been incident-free over the years and attracted positive reviews from both local and international participants and spectators,” said Modingoane.
He said there was so much more to Joburg as well, and it remained one of Africa’s most exciting, significant, visited cities, boasting great weather, wonderful people and great hope.
“Since it’s boom town origins, Joburg has been a city of promise, potential, a place of work and progress,” he said.
Fedhasa national chairperson Rosemary Anderson said the comments made were unfortunate and, sadly, damaging to South Africa’s destination reputation.
“That said, some of the key concerns highlighted once again demonstrate the government’s inability to get the basics right, namely, providing reliable energy, safe roads, and safety and security. These deficiencies not only impact negatively on tourism in our country, but make running a tourism business in our industry exceptionally difficult,” said Anderson.
According to the national chairperson, the Department of Tourism’s Deputy Minister Fish Mahlalela recently highlighted the safety and security challenges faced by South Africa, which undermine the country’s destination marketing and tourism efforts.
She said this was the single biggest obstacle they faced when trying to attract inbound tourism.
“At the very least, there should be a strong focus by government to get these basics right not just for tourists, but for the citizens of this country. In doing so, they begin to build the enabling environment our tourism and hospitality sector needs to grow tourism, which has already been identified as a viable and strong vehicle to strengthen South Africa’s economy and create jobs,” said Anderson.
Anderson also added that there was no doubt of South Africa’s immense potential as a preferred tourism destination, not least the diverse natural and cultural assets we have to share with the world, but also our people who have shown incredible resilience, patience and resourcefulness despite the challenges.
“While we acknowledge these challenges and do what we can within our power to get beyond these, we must also acknowledge what we have to offer as a country to travellers who visit and leverage it,” said Anderson.
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