Department of Tourism did not pay safety monitors

Several hundred South African youth had a dim festive season after the Department of Tourism (DoT) failed to pay their stipends for working as Tourism Safety Monitors (TSMs).

The DoT told Newsday that the monitors’ stipends “will be paid as soon as a suitable bidder is appointed and contracted.”

They have said that it “continues to keep the tourism monitors abreast of developments,” yet accounts from multiple monitors paint a picture of them being left largely in the dark.

Tourism is a critical component of South Africa’s economy, but it continues to be marred by issues related to crime, prompting the development of the National Tourism Safety Strategy.

The Tourism Safety Monitors Programme was launched in October 2017 in Gauteng to address growing tourist safety concerns following a high-profile murder on Vilakazi Street in Soweto.

After some training, the TMP places unemployed youth at high-traffic tourist sites to boost safety and gain work experience through the taxpayer-funded Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

The DoT got R222.81 million in EPWP funds for the 2025/26 financial year, with R118.11 million allocated to skills and tourism monitors projects.

In its 2025/26 Annual Performance Plan, the DoT had a target to training 1500 unemployed youth as Tourism Monitors for the financial year 2025/2026.

The Department partnered with the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator which facilitated the recruitment of unemployed youth for the TSM programme.

According to the DoT, the recruitment process was finalised in September 2025, and letters of offer and appointment were issued, and the unemployed youth were inducted into the Tourism Monitors Programme.

Following the appointment of the tourism monitors, the Department offered online training to orient them in the tourism sector.

The Tourism Monitors and the Department signed three-month contracts for the online training offered through a platform managed by South African Tourism, an entity of the Department.

“The tourism monitors are currently busy with this online training, and they must submit their attendance registers weekly,” said the DoT. They are expected to complete and receive online certificates of attendance.

A total of 250 recruited unemployed youth are currently participating in the Tourism Monitors Programme, managed by SANParks across various parks on behalf of the Department.

According to the recruitment form, they were promised a stipend of R200 a day. “I felt blessed to get the appointment letter. Finally, I could earn something,” one recruited tourism monitor told Newsday.

However, these monitors were not paid for serivces rendered. A Facebook group title Tourism Monitors 2025 gained traction, soon drawing in close to 8,000 members.

They repeatedly expressed their frustrations with the delayed payments. “Am I the only one that hasn’t received any updates this year, especially about the delay of payments,” remarked one.

“The most frustrating thing is that they’re quiet,” said another. “My wish is that we get paid tomorrow for December and month end for January.”

Service provider still unappointed

In response to queries from Newsday, the Department blamed payment delays on an ongoing procurement process, saying stipends will be paid once a service provider is appointed, likely by end-January.

“The Government of National Unity’s priorities prescribe that Departments utilise the National Pathway Management Network to recruit unemployed youth for government programmes.”

“Hence, the Department collaborated with the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator to recruit the Tourism Monitors.”

The DoT said that it had to initiate a separate bid process to appoint suitable service providers to implement the training of the Tourism Monitors.

“This process is currently underway and will be finalised soon. The Monitors’ stipends will be paid as soon as a suitable bidder is appointed and contracted.”

The Department added that it keeps the tourism monitors abreast of developments, promising payments by the end of January.

The remaining unemployed youth, spread across the nine provinces, will be trained by the appointed service providers.

Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson for Tourism, Haseena Ismail, said that “the lack of payment is yet another example of the mismanagement of this programme.”

“Between this, controversy over the tender process, and massively underdelivering on the number of opportunities realised, what should be a good programme has failed to meet its goals.”

She said that while the idea of the programme is good, its implementation is “shockingly poor.”

If the Department “are appointing a service provider after the fact, it is clear they have not been doing their jobs properly.”

“They were well aware of the plan to hire these monitors much earlier this year – what took them so long to get working?”