De Lille challenges claims that she is protecting corruption in the South African Tourism board

Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille on Tuesday challenged her detractors for accusing her of protecting corruption in South African Tourism, calling on them to provide the evidence to the Hawks.

“I want to say if anybody has got evidence that I am protecting corruption, I will advise anybody to take that evidence to the Hawks within the police,” De Lille said.

She made the statement in response to the opening remarks by Tourism Portfolio Committee chairperson Ronaldo Nalumango when she appeared before the committee.

De Lille was invited to explain her decision to dissolve the South African Tourism board, to give an update on circumstances surrounding the suspension of the CEO and explain issues around the forensic investigation report that probed a R4.1 million contract, among others.

Also invited were members of the dissolved board members as well as former board chairperson Makhosazana Khanyile and former deputy chairperson Lizelle Haskins.

Professor Gregory Davids, another former chairperson, and two members of the board did not attend due to other commitments.

This came after De Lille dissolved the board and appointed an interim board amid the suspension of CEO Nombulelo Guliwe.

Speaking during the meeting, Nalumango noted that the board was dissolved while it was in the process of laying charges against Guliwe and that they wanted to ascertain whether De Lille was shielding Guliwe to assist in the perpetuation of corruption.

“There seems to be a pattern of dissolving boards when they try to fight corruption and the minister needs to clarify why it is the case.”

She also said De Lille did not furnish the committee with certain documents prior to their meeting.

“You need to explain why it is not considered as an act of disrespect and accountability to Parliament,” she said.

In her response, De Lille said the documents were not furnished last Friday because she explained to Nalumango in a Whatsapp message that a “response was not ready for input from (the) State Attorney”.

She added that she had sent text messages to Nalumango after she missed her call while travelling on Sunday.

De Lille said she dissolved the first board in 2023 because of irregular expenditure in the Tottenham Hotspurs deal and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) declared the then board members delinquent.

She also said she removed Khanyile and Haskins from their positions in the then subsequently appointed board for convening excessive meetings to the tune of R900,000 within six months.

 “I did not fire them or dissolve the board. The pair resigned and challenged my decision in court and therefore the matter is sub judice.”

On the recent dissolution of the board, De Lille cited the non-filling of the positions of CFO and internal audit head which were the flagged by the Auditor-General.

She also said she had warned the board about convening improperly constituted meetings.

She had also warned the board about contacting the executives directly as per their own rules.

De Lille told the MPs that the board had unlawfully conducted a round robin resolution in the absence of the chair to give power to one of board members, Lawson Naidoo, to act as a board representative.

“The board acted unlawfully, exceeded their powers when it took a resolution in that meeting. The impugned resolution did not follow lawful procedure in terms of section 18.2 of the Tourism Act. Only the chair of the board is empowered to call a special board meeting.”

De Lille also said while the board denies there was a special meeting on August 1, the powers of the so-called representative included the powers exclusive to the board chair.

“Some of the contraventions, (include) Mr Naidoo, as an example, directly communicated to a member of the executive. He extended the contract of acting chief audit executive,” she said.

“Every law in this country matters. Every public cent matters. Part of protecting the public purse is to ensure due process and governance, this is non-negotiable.”

She maintained that there has been continued governance failure by the dissolved board.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za