Cape Town - An interim SA Tourism Board is set to be appointed by the end of the week to take care of matters until the institution has a new board.
This as the tourism sector on Wednesday welcomed Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille’s move to sack the SA Tourism Board.
The dissolution, officially expected to take place on Friday, comes after the outcry over the R1billion English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal, incompetence and other allegations.
De Lille said an interim board would be appointed by the end of the week.
She wrote to board chairperson Thozamile Botha on April 6 and gave the SA Tourism Board until Tuesday this week to say why she should not dissolve it amid a string of serious allegations against its members.
De Lille said she had so far not received any representation, although the deadline had passed.
Eight of 11 board members resigned last week, including the chairperson.
“Under the circumstances, I believe that good cause exists to dissolve the board, and I shall do so officially through the Government Gazette on Friday, April 21,” De Lille said.
“I will also officially gazette the appointment of a team of three persons to manage the affairs of the board until the appointment of a new board.”
Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) CEO David Frost welcomed the move by De Lille.
“She’s come into a position in which there was an elephant in the room, and she has acted decisively and quickly in terms of dealing with the issue.
“Clearly, the board of SA Tourism, in terms of overseeing the folly of the Tottenham Hotspur deal, was severely compromised,” said Frost.
He was impressed with the way De Lille interacted closely and in a frank manner with the leadership of the private sector tourism associations through the tourism business council and, indeed, with the leadership of large individual associations such as theirs, he said.
DA spokesperson on tourism Manny de Freitas said a new board was an ideal opportunity for SA Tourism to start afresh.
“The manner in which the recent Tottenham Hotspur debacle was handled by the dissolved board, as well as the more than R2.5 million that they spent on themselves in recent years, are prime examples of how not to address and handle an issue, where the interests of tourism and the sector simply did not feature.
“Despite the dissolution of the SAT board, I will still pursue the possibility of a parliamentary inquiry into the Tottenham matter because, despite the deal being quashed, questions remain unanswered as to how this whole saga got as far as it did,” he said.
Cape Times