One of the prime tourist attractions on the once lively Durban’s beachfront is considering retrenching some of its staff and outsourcing some of its offerings to make money and stay afloat.
The Ushaka Marine World, a world-class marine theme park, is considering this after it failed to break even. And efforts to get the eThekwini municipality, the owner of the theme park, to pump more money, yielded no positive results.
The proposal to retrench staff and outsource most of its work is contained in an internal document prepared by RamGoolam Consultants at the behest of the theme park’s management. The proposal is now part of the discussion documents before the executive committee of the municipality for ratification.
Plan to keep park operational
The consultants outlined that the plan may help the park to remain operational. But it will come at the expense of employees and others. The park has about 450 employees, and during peak seasons like the December-January holidays, it employs seasonal staff. If the plan is approved, the entity will be left with 50 staff members. And the others will be moved to a private company.
“In developing a plan for Option 2, it is prudent to rely on a variety of tactics in order to achieve or improve sustainability for uShaka. It is not possible to achieve improvement by applying only one of the tactic levers, i.e only revenue improvement, and leave costs and product unchanged.
“The wanted revenue improvements is unlikely to be achieved in the long term without a combination of levers working together. Tactical levers include: 1. Revenue measures – footfall, pricing and yield and cost-cutting measures. Focusing on major costs such as electricity and water, employees… ” reads part of the document.
In the same document, it is implied that the theme park has been struggling to recover post Covid-19 period. And it last had a good year in 2019, when it attracted 1.1 million visitors.
Spokesperson for eThekwini municipality, Gugu Sisilana, said secured consultation services for a feasibility study aimed to review the current uShaka Marine World business model. Also to enter an investigation of alternative business models that will ensure agility and the sustainability of the theme park.
Various proposed models
She added that the consultants presented various proposed models. And an option was selected as the preferred option. This option involves the inclusion of private sector investment in the business of the theme park and the operations thereof. The approval of this option, therefore, allows for the next phase of this study. Which is to test the business case.
“At this stage of the business case test, there are no projected retrenchments. The management at uShaka Marine World has initiated conversations on the matter with the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) and the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) as the internal labour partner, as well as with the non-bargaining council employees,” Sisilana said.
