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De Lille’s R500 Million Destruction of SA Tourism

Dear editor

Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille’s dismal handling of SA Tourism’s (SAT) affairs has cost it a whopping R500 million. Her tenure has gone from one scandal to the next.

De Lille has not been transparent over her reckless decision to dissolve the SAT Board. And now her ongoing refusal to account has had tangible consequences for SAT.

Last week the Democratic Alliance (DA) called for De Lille to come clean about the CEO and Board scandal. She has remained silent, and it has since only got worse.

The private sector has announced it will not hand over up to R500 million in funds to SA Tourism as it usually does. These funds are collected by business through the voluntary TOMSA levy. This comes as a direct response to the SAT’s poor performance and repeated qualified audits. De Lille’s response to these problems was to fire the Board attempting to fix them and say nothing of the CEO who caused them.

The private sector now believes it can make far better use of the TOMSA money itself. This contradicts the De Lille’s claims to Parliament that there is “absolutely no crisis at SAT” and that the Tourism industry “supports her”.

Clearly, neither of those replies were true. SAT is falling apart because the Minister intervened to stop the former Board from steadying the ship. The industry has clearly lost faith in SAT and the Minister. These are grounds for her to leave.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to the Department of Tourism to obtain the full record of Minister Patricia de Lille’s decision to dissolve the SA Tourism Board. She is yet to take the South African public into her confidence regarding the legal advice that she relied upon to dissolve the Board, and release the Ngubane forensic report into the CEO.

This follows explosive parliamentary revelations that De Lille ignored warnings, interfered in Auditor-General investigations, and shielded a CEO who wasted R4.1 million of public funds. Instead of protecting taxpayers, the Minister dissolved the Board to protect her ally.

The DA will not allow Minister De Lille to escape accountability on this matter. Not while her actions are costing us millions. The public deserve to know why she protects the corrupt and fires those who fight against it.

Regards

Haseena Ismail MP
DA Spokesperson on Tourism

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