A very confident double standard was again exposed by government recently.
Following the horrible murder of a German tourist outside one of the Kruger National Park’s main gates in Mpumalanga, our Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu stated that South Africa remains a safe destination for foreign tourists.
Jörg Schnarr, 75, was shot dead as he was driving his wife and two friends to the park last week.
According to Sisulu, this was only the third murder of a foreign tourist to South Africa since 1994, therefore making South Africa a safe destination.
But there are several problems with Sisulu’s statement and with government’s speedy reaction, which resulted in three arrests.
Firstly, how is it that arrests are made so quickly whenever a high-profile crime is committed?
Of course, it is commendable that investigators are able to work that quickly, but such urgency should be applied in all cases.
The tourism sector is critical to our economy, so it is important that we give tourists peace of mind that they will be safe while here.
But it is equally important that South Africans enjoy the same sense of security on a daily basis.
And when a crime is committed against us, arrests can and should happen swiftly, as the Saps has proven time and time again that they are indeed able to crack the case within 48 hours.
Then, of course, there’s the little matter of foreign tourists versus foreign migrants.
Sisulu’s statistic of only three foreigner deaths in 28 years, very conveniently excludes our occasional bouts of xenophobia, which has often left foreigners injured, maimed or even murdered.
But I get the sense that these are not the kinds of foreigners that matter.
While foreign tourists contribute a great deal to our GDP, they do so sporadically and often as a result of intense and expensive marketing campaigns.
Foreign migrants, however, create jobs and economic activity every day, contributing to the GDP in an ongoing and sustained way that doesn’t cost us any advertising.
And yet their murders are not solved as quickly, if at all.
Then there’s the very curious matter of South Africa being a safe country. For tourists!
Are we meant to believe that our country is now safer for foreign tourists than it is for South Africans living here?
Because if one tourist murder every 10 years makes us a safe destination, then what must we make of the more than 6 000 murders of locals during the first quarter of this year alone?
Where exactly is the boundary between “safe” and “dangerous” so that we can set our own minds at ease?
While it is important to keep the foreign touring currencies coming, it is equally, if not more, important to keep tax-paying South Africans from fleeing to safety.
At the risk of sounding callous, our focus should not be on one isolated murder, but rather on the broader socio-economic climate that results in all types of murders being committed.
It is admirable that Sisulu visited the victims as quickly as she did and attempted to expedite their return to Germany with the remains of their loved one.
All of that is necessary and proper, but the murder of a foreigner shouldn’t mean more to government than the murder of one of its own citizen.
And when it does happen, we are almost always left to pick up the pieces by ourselves, without any government help.
Again, I understand that we need to prove to European, and all other, tourists that we are a considerate, safe and cheap long-haul destination.
But in the end, it is not the fact that we can solve the murder of a tourist quickly, but rather the fact that the murder never happened at all, that will keep us being an attractive holiday destination to them.
breinou@gmail.com