SA Tourism ‘absolutely’ still wants to ink Tottenham Hotspur deal despite public outrage

South Africa’s national tourism agency is intent on sealing a sponsorship deal that would see the government channel nearly R1 billion of taxpayer money to back English football club Tottenham Hotspur.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, SA Tourism acting CEO Themba Khumalo said while there isn’t a final signed deal, the agency had secured conditional approval from its board.

“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.”

Themba Khumalo, acting CEO of SA Tourism, pictured here at Africa’s Tourism Indaba in Durban in May 2022. Image: Supplied

Read: SA tourism: Crime, Covid and climate change

This week, South Africa’s tourism ministry and SA Tourism came under fire following a news report by Daily Maverick that revealed the agency’s proposal for a three-year sponsorship deal amounting to £42.5 million, or around R900 million.

The deal would begin at the start of the English Premier League later this year and end in 2027.

It was to be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the State of the Nation Address (Sona) scheduled to be delivered on 9 February, the report said.

Lack of collaboration 

South Africa’s private sector tourism industry bodies have expressed disdain at the idea, with David Frost, CEO of Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) describing it as “sheer folly”.

“It’s an absolute folly … This is disingenuous at best, and quite scurrilous at worst, that it is actually being contemplated,” Frost tells Moneyweb.

He says news of the deal exposed the lack of government collaboration with the country’s tourism private sector.

“This should be a wake-up call about how we need to collaborate … We get a parroted rhetoric about collaboration and partnerships from government all the time, [but] there’s no substance.”

Read: Government ignores tourism industry’s plea for assistance

With South Africa currently facing the worst ever load shedding on record, a sum of R1 billion could be much better spent on relief programmes to subsidise tourism sector businesses buckling under the pressure brought on by unending power cuts, says Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA).

“That [money] could have helped many businesses across the sector, to service the few tourists that we have now … The industry is still struggling,” he said.

“The experience of tourists is not as optimal as it used to be. The word-of-mouth when they go back home is going to be that ‘you’re not going to have electricity’.”

Tshivhengwa also lamented the lack of collaboration between the government and private sector, saying there had not been any consultations with the TBCSA.

“We were not party to it … And from an industry point of view, we don’t believe that it’s a good idea. We believe that the money can be better spent on other things and other programmes to promote tourism and ensuring that there is some sort of continuity.”

Read:
Tourism industry calls on president’s ‘red tape team’ to save it from being strangled [June 2022]
Sona thin on tourism – TBCSA [Feb 2022]
SA tourism industry’s decade of dashed hopes [July 2020]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is approaching the office of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in attempt to prevent the authorisation of the payment.

Godongwana should instead reallocate the funds to power utility Eskom’s diesel spending, says DA shadow minister of finance Dion George.

“National Treasury has repeatedly claimed that there is no additional money for diesel. But the fact that the ANC government has R1 billion to waste on a foreign soccer sponsorship – as confirmed by the acting CEO of the SA Tourism Board – belies this claim.”

Listen to Moneyweb editor Ryk van Niekerk’s interview with SA Tourism’s Themba Khumalo and Jaco Beukes of Sail Group on RSG Geldsake about the Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship controversy: 

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.