TOURISM Minister Patricia De Lille is already feeling the heat with only months in the hot seat, as cracks begin to show.
She’s at loggerheads with the Parliament’s tourism portfolio committee that wants her to withdraw two interim South African Tourism board members, DA MP Tim Harris and businessman Zwelibanzi Mntambo, citing a conflict of interest.
ANC and EFF MPs said it was improper for De Lille to appoint Harris because of their previous working relationship in the City of Cape Town.
Harris was a DA MP between 2009 and 2014. After leaving parliament he briefly worked as director of trade and investment in the office of the executive mayor of Cape Town.
De Lille was mayor at the time.
On Mntambo, a lawyer from Soweto, the committee said he’s among the “top 30 billionaires in the country” according to committee chair Tandi Mahambehlala, but De Lille was having none of it and snapped, reminding the committee of the separation of powers between the executive and parliament.
“You have two members of the board coming from Wesgro (Western Cape Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency), and Tim Harris served under you in Cape Town. It’s like you are bringing in a friend,” said EFF MP Anthony Matumba.
“ He’s a politician and is highly invested in SAT. Last year he wrote an email to SAT, even to junior staff members, asking for funds for the World Surfing League for a certain individual, so he’s someone who already involved in SAT.
“It will be a conflict of interest if he serves there. Something should have told you this guy is highly involved. How do people who served in one organisation serve in this board?”
Matumba’s views were reinforced by committee chair Tandi Mahambehlala (ANC), who said the appointments of Harris and Mntambo “border on reputational risk and conflict of interests”.
The no-nonsense Mahambehlala had an issue with the appointment of “a billionaire” to the board, saying Mntambo was among the “top 30 billionaires in the country”.
“You must consider the shortcomings tabled by members on the two people you have appointed. You can’t have those two people in the interim board. You must replace them because a conflict of interest is there,” Mahambehlala told De Lille.
“Were there no other people who are qualified to run an entity? Why appoint a billionaire?” she asked.
In her response the minister was quoted: ”The DG and I agreed we need three skills, namely finance, governance and tourism expertise.
“We consulted widely with the tourism sector and some people were saying ‘ we won’t touch that, I’ve got a reputation to protect’, and we had to get the names as soon as possible.
“We looked at not where people are coming from but at the necessary skills we were looking for,” she said.
“I respect parliament and fully respect the wishes and concerns of the members. I will consider your concerns but you cannot instruct me what to do. I will leave here and (look at) the whole picture inclusively but nobody can instruct me.
“I am also not going to get into character assassination of anybody. We are dealing with professional people here and we have explained that we were simply looking for finance and governance experience and tourism expertise and those were the three people,” she said.
De Lille, who was addressing the committee since her appointment for the first time, had recommended Harris, Mntambo and Kholeka Zama for a three-month period.
This followed her dissolution of the SAT board over the proposed R1bn partnership deal with Tottenham Hotspur football club which was found to be unlawful and invalid as it did not comply with the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act.
It remains to be seen whether De Lille and the committee will finally smoke a peace pipe?
Meanwhile, the committee also said that domestic tourism is not contributing as much as it should to the economy, a situation the committee attributed to poor leadership within the department of Tourism.
It also said the Minister should lift the moratorium she has put in place at SAT, especially on the filling of some executive posts, as the Auditor-General recommended that appointments be made in these posts immediately.
Mahambehlala also told the Minister to leave Brand South Africa and SAT as independent entities under the Department of Tourism.
She also called for the information and system agency to be established under the department.
The department also briefed the committee on its annual performance plan for the 2023/24 financial year.
Members of the committee told the DG that there is a disjuncture between what is included in the plans on paper and the situation on the ground.
The minister said an advertisement calling for applications from people with an interest in being appointed to the board has been placed in some of the weekly newspapers.
Image supplied (Are cracks starting to show? Tourism minister Patricia De Lille has introduced two interim board members but that did not sit well with the committee ordering her to withdraw those names with immediate effect).
