The tourism industry will have to wait until Friday for clarity about the requirements to access government’s relief fund.

This was confirmed by tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane during a briefing by the economic ministers cluster on measures to assist business during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Currently, the department of tourism is battling it out in court with AfriForum and Solidarity of the use of broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) to determine funding by the Tourism Relief Fund.

The matter was heard by the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday.

AfriForum and Solidarity want the government to ditch the use of BBBEE as a criteria to determine which businesses to support in the tourism industry.

Kubayi-Ngubane said, to date, the department had not been able to pay out any of the relief applications due to the court application.

“We have not distributed anything due to the court case. As soon as we have a court outcome we will start, based on that outcome. What we allowed was for the applications to come through,” Kubayi-Ngubane said.

She said they took that route based on legal advice due to the court application.

“The judge said she should be able to give us the outcome by Friday at the latest,” said Kubayi-Ngubane.

She said the department was not able to talk to the National Treasury about reprioritisation or ask for an additional allocation to the current R200m fund due to the interdict.

“What they look for is your capacity to spend. Because we have not spent what is currently allocated, the R200m, we are not able to engage with Treasury for further relief funds,” she said.