Parliament’s tourism portfolio committee members have threatened not to approve the budget vote for the ailing SA Tourism, citing Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille’s refusal to remove the entity’s chairperson, Tim Harris.
In the committee meeting held in Durban last week, the members said if they don’t approve the budget vote, this would mean that the entity will have no funds to carry out its mandate.
De Lille appointed a new interim board on April 26, comprised of Harris, former CEO at Wesgrow; Kholeka Zama, former chief financial officer at Wesgrow; and Zwelibanzi Mntambo.
Wesgrow is the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for the Western Cape.
The committee members said the appointment reeked of nepotism.
Portfolio committee chairperson Thandi Mahambehlala said: “The problem with these three people that have entered this entity is they want to relegate everyone they found there. It has been the modus operandi of all SEOs (state-owned enterprises) and entities – black excellence, do away with it, and we are not going to concede to that.
“There has been something trending about whistle-blowing that we do not want to speak about it. The acting CEO (Nomasonto Ndlovu) is implicated in that whistle-blowing. What do you make of that? Who leaks the information about individuals? Who purged these executives? This has never happened.”
Ndlovu was implicated in bribery when a whistle-blower called the SAT hotline to report that Ndlovu had allegedly accepted an R100 000 bribe from Qatar Airlines for flights in business class, accommodation, and World Cup tickets.
Mahambehlala said: “We are in the worst situation. The three are going to remain and run the show. The three are here to massacre everyone in the senior positions. It does not take a genius to add one plus one.”
The committee also demanded clarity on a resolution taken by board member Zama to withdraw the delegation of authority (DOA).
The committee pressed Zama on how she, in her own capacity, came to the decision to withdraw the DOA without engaging the rest of the board members.
In her defence, Zama said Harris was out of town and had delegated her to submit the letter. She said the decision was not unilateral.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE