Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu approved a trip to London by a delegation led by SA Tourism board for the controversial nearly R1bn sponsorship proposal for English soccer team Tottenham Hotspur.
This was revealed by SA Tourism board chairperson Dr Nondumiso Maphazi yesterday and confirmed by Sisulu's spokesperson Steve Motale.
Maphazi told Sowetan that her deputy Dr Aubrey Mhlongo led a delegation to London approved by Sisulu between January 13-16 related to the proposal. She also said at the board meeting held on Tuesday the majority of board members supported the sponsorship proposal.
“Please note, the board is not unanimous on the matter but the majority supported it [in] last night’s meeting. Dr Mhlongo was chairing the meeting and is better placed to respond and he led a delegation on January 13-16 to London approved by the minister. Even now, they are preparing to leave tomorrow (Thursday),” Maphazi said.
The proposed sponsorship was met with outrage and backlash yesterday with several organisations calling for its scrapping and labelling a serious waste of taxpayers money.
On Wednesday, Daily Maverick reported that government, through its marketing agency, was proposing a 36-month deal, believed to be a sleeve sponsorship, with English Premier League club Tottenham at a cost of R910m over three years.
Daily Maverick reported Sisulu's aim was to conclude the deal before the impending cabinet reshuffle by President Cyril Ramaphosa potentially removes the minister from the tourism portfolio.
However, Motale in an earlier statement denied the minister was involved in the proposal saying it would need to pass muster within the ministry and would be subject to the concurrence of National Treasury to conform to government prescripts.
“Proposals get received by SAT, and are processed by a project team, then are sent through to the executive committee before being presented to the SAT board.
“Essentially, the SAT proposal is to conclude a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. It is non-binding.
“With regard this matter minister Sisulu is still awaiting for a report and to be briefed by SAT board as they are independent and take their own decisions on various matters,” Motale said.
Late last night Motale told Sowetan that Sisulu did approve the trip for the delegation to go to the UK last month.
"The minister is currently being briefed about the deal itself and SAT will release a media statement later today (Wednesday) or tomorrow (Thursday)," said Motale.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said last night they had not been briefed about the deal and there were no plans to announce it during SONA.
“Even though the Presidency has not been briefed, we don't think spending such an amount will be justified,” Magwenya said.
One source said the board made a presentation to Sisulu about the planned sponsorship deal on January 31 because that was the deadline for state owned entities and government departments to submit their plans to cabinet ministers in line with compliance regulation.
"I won't comment on whether this submission was rushed due to political reasons. What I know is that government entities have to make submissions before 12am on the January 31 to be compliant with the auditor-general rules," said the source.
The source, however, said they do not think the timing of the deal was right.
"The country is currently facing load shedding which is negatively affecting small businesses in the sector. The country should be channelling all its resources towards resolving load shedding while the SAT should consider using the R1bn towards supporting SMEs suffering from power outages by buying them generators," said the source.
Entrepreneur Sakhumzi Maqubela, who runs Sakhumzi, a popular eatery at Vilakazi Street, supported the sponsorship plan.
Maqubela said when SAT markets the country on television and print media, it doesn't bring value for money for the domestic tourism sector.
"For me it’s ok [for SAT to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur] because the team is globally known. When it is playing there are many people watching. Rwanda has done it with Arsenal and they are doing well in tourism," said Maqubela.
Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO Wayne Duvenage said they understood the need to market the country however, they believed this could be a serious waste of taxpayers money.
“Especially when this decision would consume around 38% of SA Tourism’s marketing budget for the next three to four years. On top of that, this spend is largely aimed at the UK visitors, which is only around 25% of South Africa’s inbound tourism market," Duvenage said.
DA MP Manny de Freitas said a delegation from DA Abroad would be designated to go to the club in London to ascertain the status of the deal and if money has exchanged hands.
"Our country is in a power crisis. Consumers are being crushed by inflation. There is no way the ANC will be able to condone such a decision in the 2024 election, not even among its staunchest supporters,” De Freitas said.
FF+'s Michal Groenewald labelled the proposal an utter disgrace which demonstrated how out of touch the ANC government was with reality.
"These funds must rather be used to mitigate the detrimental effects that the Covid-19 regulations had on small to medium-sized tourism enterprises," Groenewald said.
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