Ron McGregor's web site - Welcome to South Africa -trust.htm
TRUST YOUR TOUR GUIDE (beware of "Pirates")
South Africa has thousands of tour guides. Regrettably, the profession is seen as an easy way of having fun and getting paid for it. After all, if you were born in a place, surely there's not much that anyone can teach you about it? Therefore, any South African can be a tour guide.
Unfortunately, that's not true. South Africans are notoriously ignorant about their own country. I would imagine that other people are probably pretty ignorant about their own countries, too. People seldom seem to realise that there is a great deal that happens in a country that lies outside the area of their own everyday experience.
So if you find yourself in the company of the wrong type of guide, he (or she) may tell you some real whoppers. These whoppers will be told to you in all seriousness, because the "guide" is himself (or herself) absolutely convinced that they are true.
Some of the great whoppers you can hear if you come to Southern Africa:
And so on.
Back in 1976, a cheap guide was captured on television, explaining to a group of tourists that the reason we had apartheid in South Africa was because black people killed white babies and ate them! This incident shocked a few of us guides into sitting down and forming an association to bring some responsibility into the guiding profession.
We were partially successful. There is now a system of licensing, requiring guides to qualify and register before they may describe themselves as tour guides and receive payment for their services.
The system was taken over by the government. It is currently being revamped, and at the moment is administered by - well, if I ever find out, I will tell you.
Guides are registered on a number of different levels. Unfortunately, they all wear similar badges, so you cannot tell from the badge alone how experienced a guide is, and for what areas he or she is qualified.
The gradings are:
Local guide - registered to guide in and around the city where he or she is based.
Regional guide - registered to guide throughout one (or more) of the provinces.
National guide - registered to guide throughout all nine provinces of South Africa.
Specialist or Field Guide - registered in a specific field or activity. Examples are, Battlefields, Ornithology, White Water Rafting, Kruger National Park, African Townships, etc..
Prospective guides must first be tested by an accredited training institution, which puts successful candidates forward for examination by SATOUR's evaluation panel. Guides are examined on both what they know and their ability to communicate it.
Guides wishing to be registered to guide in languages other than English are required to produce proficiency certificates confirming that they do actually speak those languages.
Successful applicants are issued with name badges. They are also issued with cards which give their guide registration numbers and state exactly what they are registered for.
Guides are required to wear their badges and carry their cards at all times, and you have a right to demand to see them.
The system is laid down by an Act of Parliament, so registration is compulsory by law, and it is an offence for a guide to present himself as being registered when he is not, or to guide outside of the area for which he is legally registered.
Of course, no system is watertight, and ours has a number of holes. There are some very good guides who for one reason or another haven't got themselves registered, or registered for all areas where they guide. If you feel your guide is doing a good job, and really knows what he is talking about, don't make an issue of demanding to see his card or badge.
On the other hand, there are literally hundreds of unregistered and incompetent guides around South Africa. Some of these have just not bothered to register, or they have tried and been found to have insufficient knowledge, or insufficient ability to communicate their knowledge. Others have managed to slip through the system and get badges anyway.
We would not like to have our visitors playing at policemen and demanding to see badges and licences, but we would also not like to have unhappy clients. If you have genuine grounds for believing that you have paid money to be guided by a person who was not competent, you have the right to report the matter. Complaints may be addressed to the Tourism Board of the province you are in, the telephone number of which will be available in the local telephone directory. Your action, hopefully, will help to ensure that other travellers do not suffer the same disappointment.
If you do have to take the drastic step of reporting a guide, you will automatically report the tour company that employed the guide to handle the tour. Under ordinary South African law, you will also have a claim against that company for failing to deliver the tour for which you have paid.
Obviously, the more reputable the tour company, the more confident you can be of getting capable and experienced guides.
South Africa is a complex country. It is certainly possible to drive around independently with maps and guide books, but if you really want to experience South Africa, there is no substitute for a good tour guide to show you around and tell you "the story behind the story."
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Beware of "Pirates"
"Pirates" are unlicensed guides and drivers who offer their services to tourists in the knowledge that they are not likely to be reported or prosecuted.
One of the relatively minor consequences of using a "pirate" is that you may pay good money to a bad guide, and you won't even know it, if he gives you a whole lot of incorrect information in a convincing enough manner.
Of course, he might also mess up your whole day through sheer lack of competence or experience!
If he is driver-guiding, then you need to be more careful. The law requires that any person who accepts payment to drive people around must have a public driving permit. If he does not, then all manner of complications arise in the event of an insurance claim.
Taxi and shuttle drivers must also have public driving permits, and most of them do, but they are not registered tour guides, although they often try to pass themselves off as such. Some taxi and shuttle drivers have qualified and registered as guides. Those who have not will do their best to convince you that they are quite good enough to be guides anyway.
If you stick to the reputable and established operators, you can be sure that your guide is qualified, your driver is properly licenced, and the vehicle is properly insured.
You may want to support the "little guys" - small, one man businesses, where the owner acts as driver and guide of his own minibus. I am a great believer in free enterprise, and I would never urge you to avoid the little guys because they are not as well-established as the majors. However, when you book with the smaller outfits, insist that your guide has his badge. Almost all registered guides take their public driving tests as a matter of course. And all of them are aware of the need to have their vehicles properly insured.
In Cape Town, To-act, the Tour Operators Association of Cape Town, is the umbrella body for tour operators big and small, and all members know and abide by the rules.
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