President Thabo Mbeki capped a tumultuous week on Friday with his admission that the country's rampant crime rate was creating a climate of fear in South Africa. In his State of the Nation address, delivered at the Opening of Parliament, Mbeki pledged government's commitment to help combat and eradicate crime.

This followed on calls this week from all sectors of society for Mbeki to acknowledge that crime was an issue, largely sparked by First National Bank's cancellation of a R20-million anti-crime media campaign due to pressure from government.

Readers generously shared their crime experiences with iafrica.com this week. One reader — Michael Tatalias, CEO of Southern Africa Tourism Services Association — however, pointed out in his letter that contrary to popular belief, poverty does not cause crime.

We can turn crime around to shape our future by Michael Tatalias

The crime situation is a popular topic, and so it should be as it materially affects every one of us. But it also has a huge impact on the tourism industry. Why is this significant?

Remember that in a strife-torn country businessmen weigh up the risks of trading and making profit against their own personal safety and often continue to do business. However, when a family decide on a long haul holiday, they are looking for somewhere to go and relax and get away form the stresses and strains of their daily life. They do not want to have to consider the remotest chance of upset or harm coming to them. In this day and age of electronic choices, that family would have researched a few options, probably Australia, Thailand and maybe Mexico. Despite wanting to see South Africa and, press coverage of the murder of a high profile person such as David Rattray would make their choice simple — click the button for Australia; and South Africa loses out on turnover and jobs in tourism. That quick and that simple.

We can turn crime around

Can we turn it around? Yes. We can, and we should. It is our responsibility to solve the problem. How do we turn it around?

Firstly we need to stop being in denial. The cat is already well and truly out of the bag — the overseas market is very aware that crime is an issue. Like any 12-step programme to solve a major problem, the first step to progress is to admit that there is a problem. Only then can one take stock and see what can be done about it.

Tourism is an interesting paradox. Not only is it easily damaged by crime, but conversely it offers the country a ready long-term solution to crime. That is why we are speaking out so clearly for the need to reduce crime to protect this industry. It contains the seeds of many of the solutions to South Africa’s problems.

I believe it is fundamental to change our outlook on crime. The whole country seems to have bought into a political slogan propagated by one of the political parties contesting the 1994 election, namely Poverty Causes Crime. Whilst this is an attractively simple poster slogan it is simply not the truth.

The false implication is that until poverty is removed we must expect to have crime. Nonsense. Poverty will be with us for a very long time, and in fact crime itself is a great contributor to poverty as companies and tourists avoid South Africa to avoid crime. There are many third world countries (and more than a few in Africa alone) that have far greater levels of poverty, but have far lower rates of crime. Whilst poverty is a strong factor, it is not the only one, and certainly not the most significant. This view is too debilitating, it leads to inaction and confusion, and provides a ready answer for government indecision and delivery failure.

Eradicate poverty by targeting crime

Rather, I suggest that we turn the whole scenario around: Crime entrenches Poverty. If we want to get rid of poverty, then we have to very actively target crime.

In the tourism industry we know that if we can make a meaningful reduction in violent crime, we can attract far higher numbers of tourists than ever before; recent international polls and surveys confirm this. We know from worldwide tourism experience that there is a clear ratio of benefit — for every 12 tourists that come to a country one new job is created. Creating new jobs starts to break into the cycle of poverty.

We also know that tourists who travel long haul are in income brackets that have two additional benefits.

Firstly, they are willing to spend, so the jobs are not created just in hotels and bus companies alone, rather the benefit is spread far wider — tourists spend in restaurants, buy take-aways and cooldrinks, go to museums and attractions, go to movies and theatres, hire cars and fill up with petrol, and generally shop-shop-shop up a storm.

Secondly, they are influential in business and once having seen what a great country this is, with fully developed infrastructure and plenty of opportunities, they then encourage their own companies to look at doing business and investing in South Africa. This further grows the economy and even more jobs are created. The positive impact of tourists goes far beyond their own direct (and not inconsequential) spend.

As the benefits of increased tourist arrivals flows into the economy, we would then be able to make a significant impact on the unemployment rate. That has a material impact on reducing poverty. That will help to reduce crime even further. Further reductions in crime can only have an even more positive impact on tourist arrivals, which further boosts the economy. This leads to more jobs, and a greater reduction in poverty. And so we create a positive cycle, instead of the negative one that is currently in place

Impoverished communities can gain from tourism

The future for tourism growth is not only in the cities, but far more importantly in the rural areas, where the game reserves and pristine beaches are. As part of any programme to tackle crime to protect tourism we need to unblock the logjams that have prevented us from delivering true community tourism partnerships. These rural projects are crucial; the reason community projects work so well is that impoverished communities gain both a financial stake in the ownership of a lodge, but also gain immeasurably from the dignity of working and being valuable.

Very often the mental impoverishment that comes from years of actual poverty and joblessness is more destructive, as it reduces the personal ability of the rural poor to take advantage of the limited opportunities that come their way. One cannot play up enough the benefits of getting rural communities working (both figuratively and literally). This model has worked spectacularly well all over Africa. Once a community has a commitment to a project, the crime and poaching in the area drops off immediately. It also dramatically slows the poverty created by urban migration.

Furthermore, as more people are absorbed into the tourism field our country gains people whose life is now dedicated to looking after visitors. This reconnects people to the old values of hospitableness and acceptance. We start to make a change in people value systems for the better, as it is very difficult to welcome and look after people and at the same time violently attack and rob them.

The same is equally true of urban tourism workers. The more that people work in the tourism industry, the more people who see the value in raising service standards and looking after others. Long have we all talked in South Africa about the need to recreate the value systems of old, where every life had a meaning and a worth, and people had respect for one another.

The tourism and hospitality industry is an industry that can make just such a meaningful contribution to changing our nation’s value systems back to where they once were. That in itself will make a huge contribution to removing the violent crime that so haunts our country at present.

• Michael Tatalias is the CEO of Southern African Tourism Services Association.