Three key SA Tourism board members resign en-masse over Hotspur deal

Cape Town Tourism’s long-time CEO Enver Duminy, together with Ravi Nadasen – former COO of Tsogo Sun Hotels (now Southern Sun Hotels) – and Rosemary Anderson who’s the national chairperson of the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa), have all resigned from the SA Tourism board over the Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship debacle.

This was confirmed in a statement sent to Moneyweb on Friday, with the trio noting that their resignations are with immediate effect.

The three are key players in the local tourism industry, considering their roles and extensive experience, but decided to resign from the board of the national tourism agency this week, after voicing their disapproval (on the board) of the controversial proposed deal of almost R1 billion.

“Resulting from a difference of opinion, Nadasen and Duminy’s resignation [effective 2 February 2023] and Anderson’s resignation [effective 3 February], were tendered to Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and South African Tourism board chair Dr Aubrey Mhlongo,” their statement said.

“The former board members have a fiduciary responsibility to hold confidential information obtained during their board service and will not be available for any further comment on the matter,” the statement noted.

In a separate message, sent to various tourism industry players and seen by Moneyweb, Duminy and Nadasen state that they resigned as they “disagree with the proposal for various reasons”.

“As our resignation is now public knowledge, we felt it important for you as a key stakeholder to be aware of the matter from our side,” it reads.

Three-year sponsor deal

The resignations of the trio come days after a news report in Daily Maverick, which revealed SA Tourism’s proposal for a three-year sponsorship deal with the English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur, amounting to £42.5 million, or around R900 million.

The proposed deal, once approved and signed, was expected to begin at the start of the English Premier League later this year.

However, it seems the proposal is now dead in the water, after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office also expressed disapproval of the deal on Friday afternoon.

Bloomberg reported that Ramaphosa was opposed to the deal, saying that the R1 billion amount is too extensive.

Read:
Ramaphosa pans Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal
SA Tourism ‘absolutely’ still wants to ink Tottenham Hotspur deal despite public outrage
Three perspectives on SA Tourism’s impending Spurs sponsorship deal

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, SA Tourism acting CEO Themba Khumalo stressed that while there isn’t a final signed deal, the agency had secured conditional approval from its board and that the entity remains intent on signing a deal.

“There is no signed contract … [but] is there an intention to [sign]?’ Absolutely,” he declared.

“The board made a conditional approval, and the condition was [that] we believe … commercially this makes sense.”

By Friday morning, Daily Maverick had also reported that SA Tourism’s interim CFO, Johan van der Walt, had ties to an agency named in the original documents about the Tottenham Hotspur deal, despite its CEO declaring that was no agency acting as a middleman.