Johannesburg - In the midst of calls for South African Tourism to abandon its planned sponsorship deal with English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, SA Tourism acting chief executive Themba Mzilikazi Khumalo has called for calm heads to prevail.
This week, a leaked document seen by “Daily Maverick” revealed that the department was in the process of concluding a deal with the London-based soccer outfit that would have seen the department part with more than R910 million over three years as part of their envisaged partnership with the country’s marketing agency for tourism.
This has resulted in an outcry from political parties, trade unions and civil organisations who have called for this controversial deal to be scrapped and funds to be redirected to local projects.
In a statement on Thursday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it joined all the voices of the "properly adjusted South Africans" who were calling for the government to scrap this deal as it would amount to a third of the budget allocated to promote SA’s tourism sector.
“This is a misguided vanity project that will not contribute anything to fixing the ailing tourism industry, that has not only suffered from Covid-19 but has also been sabotaged by electricity cuts and high crime levels,” Cosatu said.
However, in response to these concerns, Khumalo said he and his team were prepared to engage all stakeholders in order to find common ground should the deal pass all the tests it needs to pass in order to be implemented.
“We are prepared to engage all stakeholders to ensure that we find one another on this matter. We will be going on a road show with all concerned stakeholders because this is a misunderstanding that can be resolved through dialogue, and I know that as South Africans when we try to find one another we are able to find solutions,” Khumalo said.
Khumalo said the country’s tourism sector, which suffered more than 500 000 job losses during the Covid-19 pandemic, needed to be returned to pre-Covid levels, and this deal would bring about the desired effects of bringing internal travellers from the UK to the country.
According to preliminary projections, sponsorship would result in R88 billion in international spending in the local economy.
“We believe in the commercial value of what we are doing... Our mandate is not football but to get audience engagement, which this type of deal is able to bring. News, sports and entertainment are some of the platforms that allow us to get audience engagements...
“We cannot continue doing things in a small way if we are to reach the target of 12 million international travellers into this country,” he said.
Speaking on the repercussions for the person responsible for leaking this confidential document, Khumalo said there would be processes to ensure that this practice was dealt with.
“Internal processes in terms of this malicious leak, because this was a confidential document that has resulted in a breach of employment relationships and confidentiality clauses, will be carried out, and whoever the actor is, when he or she is found, (they) will face the relevant remedies,” he said.
The Star