Respected ANC veteran and chairman of the Tourism Business Council Mavuso Msimang says the government's failure to stop Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba from crippling an industry that is so critical to the economy represents a serious lack of leadership. Tourism contributes more than 8% to the national economy. Given South Africa's world-class attractions, this could easily be 10%, he says, and 12% is "absolutely not beyond reach".Instead, its contribution will be slashed by the department's visa requirements, which it is imposing despite "overwhelming evidence" of the devastating impact they have begun to have on foreign tourist numbers.Data released last week indicates that these will fall by 578,000 (or 6%) a year on average - after an 11% decline year on year between June last year and August this year.story_article_left1The economic implications are so serious that this is "a matter for government at the highest level", he says."This should not be a matter between home affairs and the Department of Tourism."This thing is affecting the entire economy. Home affairs does not exist in isolation. When home affairs implements regulations that harm the entire economy then government has a responsibility to say: 'Stop!'"President Jacob Zuma acknowledged six months ago that he was fully aware of the damage these regulations would do to the industry and the economy. "When the president said in his state of the nation address that he had been made aware of the undesirable consequences of these regulations, and that the deputy president would take the lead in sorting our the matter, everybody got very excited. But nothing happened."The creation of an interministerial committee under Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa gave the industry some hope."It seemed to suggest a small step forward. But it's been a while now and we do not know who is being consulted to assist the ministers involved in tackling this matter."Requests for a meeting have been ignored for five months, he says."The committee is like a dark place somewhere. I haven't heard of anybody in the industry who has been requested to give input. It doesn't look good."He says he is "as puzzled as anybody else" by Ramaphosa's ineffectual performance."A lot of people in the tourism industry and business in general believed that, given his track record and experience in business, he would go in and make significant improvements. That hasn't happened."Msimang says the regulations "contradict and undermine" the government's stated policies of job creation and growing the economy.And they ignore the government's own protocols.As a former top civil servant - he was director-general of home affairs and widely regarded as the man who turned it around - Msimang is an authority on governance. His minister at the time, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, took the political plaudits for his success."Every policy and regulation must undergo a regulatory impact assessment. This was approved by cabinet in 2007."The requirement is that a ministry must think through the full impact of proposals and identify alternative ways of achieving the desired objectives."The guidelines say they must ensure consultation is meaningful and reaches the widest possible range of stakeholders."I can tell you that this exercise was not gone through when these regulations were promulgated."The department ought to have been asked how it came about that regulations with such obvious consequences - they may have been unintended, but they certainly were not unexpected - were passed."story_article_right2What makes the government's behaviour so irrational is that it has conceded the negative consequences the regulations will have on the economy."You have Minister Jeff Radebe telling the World Economic Forum that they are aware of the unintended consequences. This is a minister in the Presidency. The president himself has said he is aware of the problem."Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom has talked himself hoarse about this issue. Cabinet meets very frequently. I don't know what they talk about when this issue comes up, or if it does come up at all."There is a cabinet decision about the importance of tourism. The figures show that the dive in tourism continues."I really cannot understand why the government is behaving like this. There is no logical explanation as to why it is not taking firm action to arrest this sharply declining situation, which is exacerbating an already embattled economy."Government intervention is the industry's only hope, he says, because the Department of Home Affairs "has decided to be completely intransigent".Gigaba has accused the industry of lying about the impact of the regulations. "There must be a really long list of liars, then, starting with the statistician-general, economists who have nothing to do with the industry, the hard results that have been presented to the minister of reduced occupancies in hotels, cancelled bookings in aircraft, reduced frequencies."South Africa's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community are also expressing strong concerns that the regulations are harming their economies, says Msimang. "I do not know how all of these people can be considered mad."Gigaba says the industry is simply trying to find excuses for its own failures and poor performance."We have a sector that has been performing much better than the other economic sectors," says Msimang."It has performed above the international average."He must look at the trends over the past five years and tell us why the failure he talks about is only occurring now."He says Gigaba's argument that the regulations are necessary to curb child trafficking is not supported by facts."Credible researchers in the area agree that about 80% of child trafficking occurs inside South Africa, from rural to urban areas."If biometric testing is considered necessary, then - with the right capital investment in equipment - this could be done at the port of entry, he says."All the things they seek to achieve would be achievable a lot more effectively if they were done within our borders."Gigaba has also argued that other countries have the same visa requirements."Other countries make elaborate preparations for their visa requirements," says Msimang.South Africa doesn't have the global infrastructure to facilitate the carrying out of the biometric tests that the new visa regulations demand."If you're in Colombia, where do you go? There is no embassy there, I think. So do you go to Brazil to do the biometric test?"There is so much confusion about the requirements that the industry, "which would otherwise advise its clients, doesn't know what to tell them", he says."The standard operating procedures from which these things are derived were released 12 days before the start of the implementation, and changed about seven times within two weeks.story_article_left3"When you have home affairs revising things and not informing the embassies, you have serious confusion."What about Gigaba's loss of face if he backs down?Msimang makes the point that the regulations were initiated by Gigaba's predecessor, Naledi Pandor."The industry did try to advise him, to say: 'In light of the advice I'm getting, give me a chance to take a look at this thing.' Then he could have gone through the impact assessment procedure that is required, and proceeded from that basis."Msimang, who became home affairs director-general when he was 65 (he turns 74 in a week), goes back a long way with Gigaba, who was his deputy minister."We had an excellent relationship. I would commend him and compliment him when he did things I thought were good for the department. We really were friends."That changed when Gigaba became the minister. He never responded to Msimang's SMSes, and he stopped sending them."More importantly, there is no response to official documents one sends to him. Just a disdainful lack of interest in communicating. He seems to be completely unwilling to listen to alternative points of view. I cannot explain it." He is also "unable to explain the behaviour of cabinet. It is one thing to have a pig-headed minister doing the things he is doing, but why is he not being pulled back?"barronc@sundaytimes.co.za..