Sharika Regchand
sharika.regchand@inl.co.za
WHILE the business sector was assessing the impact of yesterday’s additional public holiday on production, tourism bodies predicted KwaZulu-Natal would benefit to the tune of R2 billion from the influx of visitors into the province for the holidays.
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew Layman said that while the retail, hospitality and tourism sectors were very happy, the holiday had not suited other businesses.
“They have to pay employees for a day when there was no production,” he said, adding it also meant double pay for those who had worked.
Layman said that the unscheduled holiday meant that businesses would not have planned for it when drawing up budgets, for instance.
Yesterday was declared a public holiday by acting Pre-sident Kgalema Motlanthe earlier this month, based on recommendations from the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa). The federation had asked for an extra paid public holiday because Christmas fell on a Sunday and the Day of Goodwill on a Monday.
Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business CEO Melanie Veness said that some businesses in the capital had sent the chamber letters expressing unhappiness on hearing about the extra public holiday.
Precedent
“However, what worries us at this stage is the creation of a precedent. This would impact on our productivity le-vels, which, according to statistics, are very low,” she said.
Some businesses had been affected more than others but the holiday had not hit all of them, even in the manufacturing sector for instance, as they had shut down for the festive period.
Nedbank economist Isaac Matshego believed the shut-down period meant the extra holiday had not had much impact on the economy. At another time of year it might have been differentl.
He said
that many businesses that usually opened on public holidays had done so.
Meanwhile, tourism in the province appeared to have done better this year than in the previous two.
It had gained momentum with the COP17 conference in Durban over nearly a fortnight this month and last, which drew thousands of people from around the world.
Durban KZN Convention Bureau chief executive James Seymour said they had expected this month to be one of the best because of the climate change conference.
The impact on the hospitality industry had been excellent, extending to the north and south coasts and Pietermaritzburg.
After Cop 17, leisure and domestic tourists had begun streaming in from December 15.
Durban Tourism head Phillip Sithole said most hospitality establishments in the city had been more than 90 percent booked from December 24 until yesterday.
“We are expecting the trend to continue until the first week of January,” he said, adding that shopping malls were all busy.
