Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has defended the stability and governance of South African Tourism (SA Tourism), dismissing allegations that her intervention at the entity undermined its independence through questionable board appointments.
SA Tourism has been under intense scrutiny following the dissolution of its previous board and the suspension of its chief executive officer, Nombulelo Guliwe, developments that have fuelled concerns about governance instability at the state-owned tourism marketing agency.
Democratic Alliance spokesperson on tourism, Haseena Ismail, on Wednesday said she had written to Parliament calling for urgent intervention and oversight following serious concerns about SA Tourism’s handling of Meetings Africa.
Meetings Africa is South Africa’s flagship Pan-African business events trade show, hosted by SA Tourism, and plays an important role in securing future business events for the continent.
Ismail said SA Tourism has yet to appoint an events management partner for Meetings Africa with less than a month to go before this flagship event. She said this raises alarm about the growing risk of reputational damage to South Africa’s tourism and business events sector.
Ismail has also recently criticised certain appointments to the SA Tourism board, particularly Khomotso Brian Mosehla, whom she flagged as previously an empowerment partner of Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the company that was unlawfully awarded the Sassa social grants contract in 2012.
Speaking during an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos on Wednesday, De Lille said criticism of SA Tourism stability was unfounded and ignored the progress made since the appointment of an interim board.
“It is nonsense. Immediately when I dissolved the previous board – and that matter is now before the courts and the reasons is in the papers as to why I dissolved that board – in the same gazette, where I dissolved the board, I appointed the board in the interim. There’s no problems,” De Lille said.
“The Auditor General has a raised with SAT the vacancies of key posts within SA Tourism that the dissolved board failed to fill. The position of the chief financial officer. The position of the head of internal audit. The position of the CEO of South African National Convention Bureau. In the three months that they’ve been there, they’ve appointed all three of those positions.
“There’s never been a crisis in SA Tourism because at every financial year, as government departments, we all have our annual performance plan. We all have our medium-term development plan. So it is just that those things need to be implemented by whoever is leading SA Tourism.”
De Lille’s comments come as President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised a far-reaching investigation into SA Tourism by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), marking one of the most significant interventions in the entity’s recent history.
Ramaphosa recently signed Proclamation 297 of 2025, empowering the SIU to probe allegations of serious maladministration, improper conduct and possible corruption at SA Tourism.
According to the proclamation, the investigation will focus on the procurement of media buying services, including three specific invoices and purchase orders. The SIU has been mandated to examine whether payments were made for services that were not rendered, only partially delivered, or executed outside the terms of contractual agreements.
The investigation will also assess whether SA Tourism and its officials breached procurement legislation, National Treasury regulations or internal supply chain management policies.
The SIU probe follows years of controversy at the organisation, which has been plagued by repeated leadership changes, governance instability and a loss of confidence among industry stakeholders.
In August last year, the previous SA Tourism board suspended CEO Nombulelo Guliwe over allegations of financial misconduct. Among the claims was a R4.1 million prepayment to a service provider for work that investigators allege was never completed. The company implicated in the matter has denied any wrongdoing.
The Presidency said the SIU investigation would seek to establish accountability and, where appropriate, recover any financial losses suffered by the state.
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