President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the Presidency had not been briefed on Tourism South Africa’s R1 billion sponsorship of English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspurs.
There are also no plans to include an announcement about this deal in the State of the Nation Address, Magwenya said.
“Although we have not been briefed, we do not think that spending this amount in this way is justified.”
21 million tourists
South African tourism has received criticism after announcing on Thursday that it is exploring a partnership with Tottenham Hotspurs FC, among other projects, to achieve 21 million international tourist arrivals by 2030.
“As part of the research, Tourism South Africa seeks to understand the success of high-impact sports partnerships and how destinations benefit from these collaborations. A number of destinations, globally, have entered into sports partnerships and this produces high results, in terms of tourist arrivals,” he said.
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“Tourism South Africa chose to explore a partnership with Tottenham Hotspurs FC for several reasons, mainly because England is one of the main source markets in South Africa, according to the entity’s Marketing Priority Investment Framework (MPIF). Furthermore, sport is one of the platforms that can encourage audience, which entities can do to convert fans and spectators into tourists.
Although Tourism South Africa has not yet “completed” the deal, South African political parties and citizens are calling for the deal to go that far.
eNCA reported on Friday that three South African Tourism board members have resigned.
Urgent tourism meeting
Meanwhile, an urgent meeting of the Tourism Portfolio Committee to discuss Tottenham Hotspur’s controversial sponsorship deal has been confirmed to take place on Tuesday 7 February 2023.
According to Manny de Freitas, DA Shadow Tourism Minister, the committee will have the opportunity to interrogate SA Tourism about the pending deal.
Today’s revelation that the interim CFO of SA Tourism has a relationship with the agency that will cash in on this deal, makes this meeting urgent and critical.
“Yesterday’s press briefing by Themba Khumalo, Acting CEO of SA Tourism, has left more questions than answers. The DA will ask for answers, among other things, if Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu knows about the deal? We also want to confirm the exact figures in this deal, De Freitas said.
“The DA believes that a sports team is not needed to promote South Africa. This money should be used to buy diesel to reduce the load, or go to tourism infrastructure.
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