By Hazel Friedman
There’s something fishy at South African Tourism (SAT) and it doesn’t emanate from the ocean or the fine-dining restaurants frequented by locals and tourists. It is the stench of corruption in one of South Africa’s most critical, potentially most lucrative, job-creating sectors
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille is currently at the centre of a scandal over her recent dissolution of the SAT board. Members of the dissolved board have requested the Gauteng High Court to declare her decision unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. De Lille is also accused of defamation and of shielding CEO Nombulelo Guliwe, who was suspended by the Board on 13 August, due to alleged misconduct.
De Lille subsequently dissolved the entire board with immediate effect on 19 August 2025, citing Section 16 of the Tourism Act. She stated that the SAT board’s decision was unlawful because it was not properly constituted without a chairperson.
On 31st July, the previous chairperson, Professor Gregory Davids, had resigned after the SAT board members passed a vote of no confidence in his leadership. The board subsequently signed a “round-robin” resolution to suspend Guliwe.
Davids’ resignation, Guliwe’s suspension and the subsequent dissolution of the board have occurred amidst alarming findings of several forensic reports and probes by the Special investigation Unit (SIU) into alleged tender irregularities and dodgy deals surrounding major trade events, that have tainted SAT’s reputation, and, by extension, the tourism sector.
The SAT Board has vehemently opposed its dissolution. It cites provisions in the Tourism Act that allows it to function and make decisions if it meets quorum requirements. Last week de Lille was grilled by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee. The EFF and DA have also weighed in, accusing de Lille of over-reach and of making politically inspired decisions to protect Guliwe.
The only silent voice is that of the suspended CEO herself. Guliwe is gagged by the now-dissolved board from communicating with staffers and stakeholders. In her suspension letter, signed by Lawson Naidoo as an authorised Board Member, she was instructed to leave the building immediately, and forbidden from obtaining documentation from any SAT employee. But contrary to several media reports, her suspension letter makes no mention of financial malpractice as one of the causes of her ousting.
Sources within the tourism sector insist that Guliwe has been made a scapegoat for multiple fiduciary and governance irregularities that have plagued SAT for years. Even prior to 2022, whistle-blowers have been alerting the SIU of SAT’s culture of nepotism, mismanagement and directorial delinquency.
Established by the Tourism Act of 2014, SAT is a public entity, mandated to market South Africa as a domestic and international tourist destination. SAT’s long-term strategy and governance are managed by the CEO and the SAT Board, while its Executive Committee (Exco) deals with urgent, operational issues and strategy to ensure its smooth running.
De Lille was first appointed as Tourism Minister in March 2023 and reappointed in May 2024, following South Africa’s national elections. By most accounts, she inherited a mess from the former Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who spearheaded the sector from August 2021 until March 2023. Chief among the scandals under Sisulu’s watch was the R1bn sponsorship deal between SA Tourism and the British soccer club, Tottenham Hotspur. Had the deal not been ultimately aborted, it would have haemorrhaged SAT of most of its annual budget.
At the time, the Acting CEO of SAT was Themba Khumalo, who was also Acting Head of Marketing. Khumalo subsequently resigned in May 2023. At the time, tensions in the SAT Board – many of them regarding similar questionable deals – resulted an exodus of several members. Since 2021, there have been five acting CEOs, further contributing to the SAT’s “revolving doors” syndrome, say former SAT Board & Exco members, who requested anonymity. Dodgy deals, political factionalism, and favouritism, have exacerbated SAT’s instability and governance problems, they say.
Prior to the Tottenham debacle, there was the 2021 dodgy Dubai Expo Dome deal, costing R4,1 million. In 2024, the new SAT Board commissioned the Ngubane forensic investigation after the Auditor-General flagged the payment as a “material irregularity”. Received in April this year, the forensic report recommended “consequence management” against the CEO as well as recovery of the funds from those implicated. But although the R4,1 million has been recovered, the money trail remains muddy.
A Chartered Accountant with extensive experience in financial management, Guliwe was the Acting CFO at the time of the Dubai Dome deal. According to several sources who have provided corroborative documentation, Guliwe did not support the dome deal but reluctantly approved it, contingent on full compliance with supply chain management policies. They say she resigned from SAT in early 2023 because she felt she could no longer work for an entity that she believed had been “captured”.
Soon after taking office, in addition to halting the Tottenham deal, in April 2023, de Lille officially dissolved the SAT board. In June 2023, an advertisement was published to nominate new, qualified board candidates. In February 2024, Cabinet formally approved the appointment of the latest, now dissolved, SAT Board. Guliwe had re-applied for a SAT position and was re-appointed as Acting CFO. Several Acting CEOs later, she was appointed as SAT CEO.
In July this year, SAT was criticised by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Tourism for underperformance, for achieving 89% of its 55 targets while overspending on its allocated budget of R1.43 billion by R24.1 million. Yet, under Guliwe’s watch this figure is an improvement on previous years.
Several former SAT staffers insist Guliwe was determined “to clean up” the entity, ensuring good governance, fiscal responsibility and fiduciary accountability. This entailed making strict, sometimes unpopular decisions, including instituting disciplinary actions against members for attempts to allegedly circumvent fair bidding processes for flagship events. Guliwe even sought legal counsel after discovering that procurement services were being outsourced to unaccredited agencies without following proper tender processes. Guliwe’s determination to hold some board members accountable, “caused resentment”, say former staffers. This explanation contradicts the Boards’s public explanation for her removal, that she bullied and attempted to remove members without due labour process.
So, did De Lille get it wrong? Did she “go rogue” by dissolving a board that held its CEO accountable for misconduct? Did she misinterpret the law and over-reach her powers to protect Guliwe? If so, why?
Or was Guliwe punished for simply trying to do her job as a competent CEO, and who is now “the fall guy” in an ongoing political power struggle? Is SAT continuing to lurch in the fumbling footsteps of other state-run “captured” entities in ongoing states of corruption and disarray? Guliwe’s gag order, preventing her from publicly defending herself, suggests there is much more to this saga and many more questions than answers.
Adding embarrassing irony to the acrimony, September is Tourism Month. As part of its 2025 G20 presidency, South Africa is hosting the Tourism Investment Summit, hoping to grow the economic potential of this lucrative, but beleaguered sector. Until the SAT rot is cleaned up, the stench threatens to scupper that objective as well.
*Hazel Friedman is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist, author, art critic and emerging documentary filmmaker.
