MyZA

News, Directory, Events and Other Stuff

You are here: Home / News / Letters / SA Tourism – The Sinking Ship

SA Tourism – The Sinking Ship

Dear Editor

The DA has called on Minister Patricia de Lille to urgently account to Parliament following the precautionary suspension of SA Tourism CEO, Nombulelo Guliwe.

Instead of focusing on the serious allegations against the CEO, the Minister has focused on whether the Board had the authority to suspend her without a Chairperson, a distraction that risks letting the CEO off the hook.

The DA is committed to due process. However, it cannot be that the Minister attacks the board while giving no attention to serious allegations against the CEO. This forms part of an unfortunate pattern, where the Minister has abdicated responsibility for disciplinary issues in her Department, only intervening once the damage is done.

SA Tourism, which takes up the vast majority of the Department’s budget, has been a consistent problem for tourism in South Africa. Despite overspending on its already-significant budget, it failed to meet 11% of its performance targets last year. These are not the hallmarks of an agency in good health.

We cannot allow yet another year of underperformance from SA Tourism, at the expense of other job-creating programmes like Working on Tourism. Three years of acting CEOs, from 2021 to 2024, significantly destabilised the entity. The Minister must act quickly to steady the ship, by allowing an independent, transparent, and swift investigation to take place, and taking action accordingly.

The DA is in government to fight for jobs and growth. Tourism is vital to both, and if the Minister won’t make sure our entities are working, we will.

Regards

Haseena Ismail MP
DA Spokesperson on Tourism

Category: Tag:

If you feel strongly about this article then feel free to send MyZA a ‘Letter to the Editor’ using the submission form below:

Letter to the Editor

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
If this is in response to an article please include that article title here or as the lead in for the first paragraph of your Letter below.

Separate tags with commas

Localise your letter by naming the city your words are about. Add relevant words describing your subject. Single comma separated words of no more than 5
Your Name(Required)
Your Name will be linked to the website below.
Your personal, business or social media web site
Choose NO to not set up a user account on MyZA. User Accounts will allow you to submit letters under your own Author Name

3 Latest Letters to the Editor:

  • Don’t Ignore a SASSA Review Notice — It Is Not a Cancellation

    Dear Editor, I run SAGrant (sagrant.co.za), a free resource helping South Africans navigate SASSA grants. SASSA has reminded beneficiaries that a grant review is not a cancellation. A review simply checks whether a beneficiary still meets the qualifying requirements — it can be triggered by a change in income, employment, marital status, address, contact details…

  • SASSA’s Revised November Payment Dates – And What Beneficiaries Should Know

    Dear Editor, I run SAGrant (sagrant.co.za), a free resource helping South Africans navigate SASSA grants. SASSA has revised its November 2026 payment dates around the 4 November municipal elections: Older Persons grants will be paid on 30 October (Friday), Disability grants on 2 November (Monday), and Children’s grants on 3 November (Tuesday), with review-related grants…

  • Thoughts on Lotto Winner News

    Dear Editor This is fantastic news for the community of Gqeberha. It is always heartwarming to hear about such life-changing positive outcomes for everyday people. Congratulations to the lucky winner! Regards Buhle Ngcobo In Response to/From: R8.5 Million Lotto Winner Claims Prize in Gqeberha