Khama warns racist tour operators
Thalefang Charles | Tuesday December 6, 2016 15:35
“We would revoke all the racists’ licences. I urge everyone to come and report racism incidents to me and I will make sure that I take action,” Khama said at a Botswana Travel and Tourism Expo (BTTE) media briefing held at Seboba Nature and Recreational Park in Kasane last week.
Although there have been a few reported cases of racism at the country’s tourism resorts, most people say there are many more that go unreported and it is a ticking time bomb in an industry that is mainly run by white foreigners.
Tourism racism got on the spotlight in early 2015 after a local singer, Berry Heart’s ugly spat with one local operator in Kasane. After Berry Heart’s incident that was widely reported in the media, there were more revelations with some saying the incident was just a tip of an iceberg. Reports indicated that even high-ranking officials in Botswana have been on the racist white operators’ receiving end, telling black people to leave them alone at their resorts and rather ‘go to the cattle-posts’. Khama warned that he would not tolerate any racism in tourism and would not hesitate to revoke any racists’ licences. Meanwhile, Khama has revealed that Botswana is not keen to have uni-visa with Kavango Zambezi Transfronteir Conservation Area (KAZA) countries because they failed to stick to other agreements.
“Let them manage their areas first. Right now KAZA is not working and uni-visa would not serve us. They have to change first and protect their wildlife, which is a primary factor and the people’s benefits are secondary,” Khama said. KAZA-visa is a proposal aimed at promoting the free and easy movement of tourists across the KAZA borders.
At present, the agreement has been reached on a uni-visa allowing free tourists movement between only Zimbabwe and Zambia.