Patricia de Lille under fire — unpacking the SA Tourism saga

There were several headshakes and rebuttals during a meeting in Parliament to get to the bottom of the recent dissolution of the board of South African Tourism (SAT) by the minister of tourism, Patricia de Lille. While an interim board has been appointed, that didn’t stop claims and counterclaims from coming into the public discourse and into Parliament.

All this played out on Tuesday, 2 September, at an urgent meeting of the tourism oversight committee, which focused on De Lille’s dissolution of the board.

De Lille dissolved the SAT board on 19 August with immediate effect, citing “good cause” under section 16 of the Tourism Act. She claimed this was done after the board exceeded its powers by appointing a board member to carry out some of the functions of the previous chairperson and contravened its own charter by holding a special board meeting that the chairperson had not convened.

Read more: ‘Absolutely no crisis at SA Tourism,’ claims under-fire Patricia de Lille

However, this was not the only claim under contention during Tuesday’s marathon session. Daily Maverick unpacks some of the claims and counterclaims that unfolded in Parliament.

Allegation: There is an improper relationship between De Lille and the suspended SAT CEO

During the meeting, several MPs raised questions concerning De Lille’s apparent protection of SAT CEO Nombulelo Guliwe, who was suspended by the board on 13 August over claims of misconduct.

At the time, former board member Lawson Naidoo said this was based on unfair labour practices. Naidoo said Guliwe had removed SAT’s secretary and chief marketing officer without following due process.

De Lille claimed the board’s suspension of Guliwe was unlawful and then dissolved the board.

Read more: SA Tourism board to fight De Lille’s dissolution amid legality, governance storm

EFF MP Ngwanamakwetle Reneiloe Mashabela asked the minister, “Is there a corrupt relationship between you and the CEO?”

De Lille, a veteran politician and Arms Deal whistleblower, proclaimed: “I can’t even spell corruption correctly because I hate it.”

She said she wouldn’t tolerate anybody saying she had a corrupt relationship. Throughout the parliamentary hearing, De Lille reiterated that anybody who had evidence of alleged wrongdoing in relation to the saga should submit it to the police.

She maintained that Guliwe’s suspension would be a matter for the interim board of six people, which she appointed to manage the affairs of SAT, to consider.

Allegation: Impropriety surrounding appointment of Kholeka Zama 

Allegations of impropriety were raised over the appointment of Kholeka Zama as one of six interim SAT board members while a process to appoint a new board is under way.

MPs noted that Zama had previously come under fire from the very same tourism committee for allegedly lying to them — and thus Parliament.

Elmarie Linde (DA) asked De Lille whether her arm had been twisted to appoint Zama or if it was her own decision.

“Nobody can twist my arm. I will not allow it,” said De Lille.

She said the interim board members had received security clearances before they were appointed.

Allegation: De Lille’s reason for dissolving the board was false

At the centre of the dispute between the dissolved board and De Lille was a 1 August decision to appoint Naidoo to act on behalf of the board in certain decision-making circumstances. The former board argues this was required as former board chair Professor Gregory Davids had resigned and his tenure ended abruptly on 31 July.

Naidoo explained that the decision was taken on a WhatsApp group as the board needed to act to get administrative issues and financial statements resolved and signed off.

De Lille claims that the decision was unlawful. She said the board must “always be guided” by the Tourism Act.

Members of the dissolved board have indicated they will take legal steps over the issue. De Lille responded, “It will be tested by legal advice.”

The board met on 31 July for a quarterly meeting. De Lille claimed the board met again on 1 August after Davids’ resignation. The board refuted that they had met and said, in fact, they discussed the issues on WhatsApp on 1 August, which led to Naidoo being tasked with the responsibility to act on behalf of the board.

Factionalism 

At Tuesday’s parliamentary meeting, De Lille claimed that there was “factionalism” in the dissolved SAT board, which prevented her from making a crucial appointment, that of the deputy chairperson. Eventually, she appointed a deputy chairperson, whom she later fired.

The fired deputy chairperson, Lizelle Haskins, was present at the meeting and said, “The minister distorted the facts.” She said there were no factions on the board.

Another member of the dissolved board, Oupa Pilane, claimed the issue of factionalism stemmed from a WhatsApp group consisting of the board and De Lille. When members of the board asked De Lille why the WhatsApp group had been created, she supposedly told them they could leave the group as they were being factional.

Pilane said De Lille called the board factional after it asked her about the actions of then chairperson Davids, whom members of the board alleged had requested changes to SAT’s audit, which led to an adverse finding from the Auditor-General. Pilane claimed that instead of acting on the board’s claims, De Lille “labelled us factional”.

Way forward

At the end of the meeting in Parliament on Tuesday, chairperson Ronalda Nalumango said the committee must get a legal opinion on the interpretation of the law regarding the appointment of the board and, based on that advice, the committee could deliberate further.

“The minister ignored substantial issues from governance and financial mismanagement when dissolving the board,” she said.

“Based on the legal advice again,” said Nalumango, the committee, through the Office of the Speaker, would need to write a letter to the leader of government (in this case, Deputy President Paul Mashatile), “expressing concerns about how the minister is dealing with the issues at South African Tourism”.

This is not the first time the SAT board has come under fire. Soon after De Lille’s reappointment as minister after the 2024 general elections, allegations were made that the board had held an excessive number of meetings.

At the time, Daily Maverick reported that two members of the board resigned and De Lille publicly claimed to have launched an independent investigation into the matter. DM