Andrew Stegmann

Millennials seeking value in SA tourism

Cape Town – More and more so-called millennials are seeking value for money in the SA tourism industry thanks to the devaluation of the rand, according to Dean Bibb, Sabre Travel Network’s vice-president for the Middle East and Africa.

The millennial market is effectively anyone born between 1980 and 2000 – therefore, someone below 35 years of age.

“South Africa, partly thanks to the devaluation of the rand, has become a popular destination for travellers from Europe and across Africa. This is especially true of value-for-money seeking millennials,” said Bibb.millenials

In his view, key current trends in the travel industry include a growing demand for personalisation and customisation of the travel experience as well as the so-called “appification” of travel. There also seems to be a blurring of the lines between business and leisure travel.

“We’re seeing a trend for the lines between business and leisure travel to blur: where business travellers include leisure excursions during their trips. This opens opportunities for travel operators to offer relevant leisure opportunities to business travellers,” said Bibb.

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Andrew Stegmann

Zimbabwe: 40 000 Face Deportation From UK

Bulawayo — British Members of Parliament have warned that plans to deport skilled migrant workers who earn less than £35 000 per year and originate from non-European Union (EU) countries will create a skills shortage in the economy. At least 40 000 migrants, among them Zimbabweans, will be affected by the new regulations which come into effect on April 6. The new earnings threshold will particularly affect those in low skilled jobs. The United Kingdom Office of National Statistics reported the Zimbabwean population in Britain increased from 47 158 in 2001 to an estimated 200 000 in 2010.zimbabwe

The proposals, which were mooted by the UK Home Secretary, Mrs Theresa May, were recently lambasted by MPs at Westminster Hall during a parliamentary debate examining the UK’s immigration policy.

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Andrew Stegmann

Zimbabwe: 35 Foreign Firms Submit Indigenisation Plans

At least 35 foreign-owned companies have submitted plans on how they intend to localise their shareholding in terms of the indigenisation law, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority has said. Under the new indigenisation framework, which came into effect in January this year, foreign-owned companies are required to submit their proposals through ZIA. ZIA chief executive Mr Richard Mbaiwa said last week the authority has handled only 35 applications.

“Since we were given the mandate to handle the applications, we received 35 proposals,” said Mr Mbaiwa. Government set March 31 as the deadline for submitting proposals on indigenisation compliance. All companies that fail to comply by March 31 will have their operational licenses cancelled following a directive issued by the Cabinet last week to line ministers to start enforcing the law.

Last week, Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao said Cabinet unanimously passed a resolution directing that from April 1 2016 all line ministries should proceed to issue orders to licensing authorities to cancel licenses of non-compliant business within their respective sectors of the economy.

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Andrew Stegmann

Expat Espresso in South Africa

Excerpts from expat life
This expat interview comes from my friend, Clara Wiggins, here in South Africa. Clara has contributed some excellent articles to ExpatChild in the past and, as well as working and parenting, has also managed to find time to write a useful book, The Expat Partner’s Survival Guide.

WHERE DO YOU CURRENTLY LIVE AND HOW DID YOU COME TO BE THERE?
I currently live in Pretoria, South Africa. We have been here for five months and are here because of my husband’s job at the British High Commission. It is our third posting as a family – we have previously lived in Pakistan and St Lucia.

WHAT DOES ‘HOME’ MEAN TO YOU?
Having travelled on and off all my life, home is the one place that is a constant – in my case, this is the UK. Whenever we lived abroad when I was a child, we always knew that we would return to our home country. Although I love being an expat and exploring the rest of the world, I also love going “home” – the changing of the seasons, the telly, the fish and chips, the humour… there is always something about the cold, grey M25 on the first drive from the airport back to our house that makes me happy.

DO YOU HAVE A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE ON COPING WITH THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF A MOVE?

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