Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille intends to collaborate with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to declare as delinquent the former SA Tourism Board members implicated in the R1 billion (US$58 million) Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship controversy in 2023.
On Monday, November 24, President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised a SIU investigation, which De Lille says she requested, into allegations of serious maladministration and improper conduct at SA Tourism, linked to media buying contracts and payment for services not rendered.
Speaking ahead of a Tourism Portfolio Committee meeting on Tuesday, November 25, De Lille said the Department of Tourism had already contracted two SIU investigators shortly after she took office in March 2023.
“We discovered that, for a period of three years, all the allegations and complaints that were phoned through the hotline of SA Tourism were never investigated,” said De Lille.
The complaints allegedly involved the conduct of the 11-member Board in respect of the Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship proposal and concerns about their knowledge, experience and qualifications. De Lille dissolved the Board after the mass resignation of eight members in April 2023.
“Part of the initial findings was the suspension of some officials at SA Tourism but they also recommended that the Board be declared delinquent,” said De Lille.
She said, after consultation with SIU Head Advocate Andy Mothibi, a joint decision was taken by the department, SA Tourism and the SIU for a legal application to declare the former Board members delinquent. Delinquent directors can be subject to court-ordered disqualification from serving on company Boards for a minimum of seven years.
‘Political interference’ in the spotlight
The Tourism Portfolio Committee, together with members of the SA Tourism Board controversially dissolved by De Lille in August this year, have argued that political interference played a major role in exacerbating governance and financial mismanagement issues at SA Tourism.
De Lille dissolved the Board after they resolved to suspend then SA Tourism CEO Nombulelo Guliwe on suspicion of her role in instances of irregular expenditure. She claimed the resolution was unlawful as it was made during an “unprocedural meeting” not presided over by a Chairperson following the resignation of Gregory Davids.
Responding to the SIU proclamation, former Board member Oupa Pilane reiterated his view that De Lille’s intervention halted efforts to hold Guliwe to account.
“Her repeated refusal to release critical reports to the Portfolio Committee, her disruption of Auditor-General processes and her public denial that any crisis existed only delayed the inevitable reckoning we are now seeing with this SIU proclamation,” said Pilane.
“The SIU investigation must therefore not stop at procurement irregularities and wasteful expenditure. It must also fearlessly examine the political interference that prevented earlier accountability and allowed the rot to spread.”
