Patricia de Lille to Scrap R900m Tottenham Hotspur Deal, Claims Proposed Sponsorship Is Unlawful

Patricia de Lille to Scrap R900m Tottenham Hotspur Deal, Claims Proposed Sponsorship Is Unlawful

  • Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has put an end to the controversial R900 million proposed sponsorship deal between SA Tourism and Tottenham Hotspur
  • Minister De Lille revealed that not only was the Tottenham Hotspur deal not budgeted for, but it was also unlawful and invalid
  • The tourism minister said it was unjustifiable to splurge almost R1 billion of taxpayer money in this way

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PRETORIA - Newly appointed Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has revealed that the contentious Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal with SA tourism has been axed.

Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille to veto Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal
Patricia de Lille will not approve the R900m Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal with SA Tourism. Image: Ziyaad Douglas & Julian Finney
Source: Getty Images

De Lille spoke at a media briefing when she said the proposed R900 million three-year sponsorship between SA Tourism and UK-based football team Tottenham Hotspur is unlawful.

The new tourism minister explained that spending R300 million a year of taxpayers' money over a three-year period was unjustifiable.

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The controversial sponsorship was allegedly not budgeted for, which is required by Section 53 of the Public Finance management act. Additionally, it was found that the deal did not comply with Section 217 of the Constitution and the tourism board's supply chain policy, eNCA reported.

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The Tottenham Hotspur proposed sponsorship stirred controversy earlier in the year when Daily Maverick blew the lid on the deal. According to De Lille, the talks on the agreement started in 2022 and SA Tourism later approved the contract in February 2023.

Regardless of SA Tourism's approval of the deal, De Lille said that the final green light would have to come from the minister in charge of the portfolio, and, as head of tourism, she would not approve it, EWN reported.

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Tottenham Hotspur deal: SA Tourism acting CFO resigned after facing possible suspension

Briefly News earlier reported that South African Tourism (SAT) confirmed that acting CFO Johan van der Walt tended his resignation on Thursday, 16 February.

His resignation came after the organisation planned to suspend him for his alleged dodgy involvement in a sponsorship deal with English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur.

SAT board chairperson Thozamile Botha confirmed his resignation with TimesLIVE and said Van der Walt was formally instructed to provide reasons why he should not be suspended. Rather than responding, he resigned.

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Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Lerato Mutsila avatar

Lerato Mutsila (Current affairs editor) Lerato Mutsila is a journalist with 3 years of experience. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Pearson Institute of Higher Education in 2020, majoring in broadcast journalism, political science and communication. Lerato joined the Briefly News current affairs desk in August 2022. Mutsila is also a fellow of the 2021/2022 Young African Journalists Acceleration programme, which trained African journalists in climate journalism. You can contact Lerato at lerato.mutsila@breifly.co.za