SPURSGATE
Public concern builds as Lindiwe Sisulu confirms Spurs deal is on the table – but denies championing it
Following Daily Maverick’s reporting on SA Tourism’s plan to spend nearly R1-billion sponsoring Tottenham Hotspur, the Minister of Tourism has confirmed that a proposal is on the table. A statement angrily denied that Lindiwe Sisulu herself had any personal interest in the deal. Meanwhile, public concern over the expenditure is building.
In a statement released by tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Wednesday morning, Sisulu termed the controversial R1-billion proposal to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur a “memorandum of understanding” between Spurs and SA Tourism.
Sisulu claimed that the proposal is “non-binding”.
This conflicts with the impression given by the documents in the possession of Daily Maverick, which give clear timelines for the deal — including an upfront fee payable by 31 March 2023.
A Powerpoint presentation in the name of acting SA Tourism CEO Themba Khumalo states that “all deliverables associated with this project” must be completed by the end of March in order to ensure “a valid expense against savings identified in the current year budget (rather than possibly returning it to National Treasury)”.
It states that the deal will be “100% activated on 1 July 2023”.
At no point in the two presentations seen by Daily Maverick is the plan referred to as a memorandum of understanding. Instead, it is clearly described as a “sponsorship partnership” and a “deal”.
Sisulu also stated that the proposal is yet to be approved by the Treasury. Daily Maverick understands, however, that the plan is for an agreement to be signed as soon as by the end of this week.
The statement from the tourism minister angrily denied that Sisulu herself had any personal interest in the deal, or was championing the signing of the agreement.
“Like any board, the [SA Tourism] board is independent and Minister Sisulu does not interfere with its decisions,” it stated.
Sisulu described Daily Maverick’s report as “riddled with inaccuracies and untruths aimed at tarnishing Minister Sisulu’s image”, and hinted that legal action might be forthcoming.
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Public outrage building over this proposed spending
Following the publication of the Daily Maverick report on the matter, public outrage has been building over the proposed expenditure, with some comparing it to the short-lived plan by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to erect a giant South African flag in Pretoria at a cost of R22-million.
Brand Africa chairman Thebe Ikalafeng called the proposal an “irresponsible use of tax”, on the grounds that South Africa is “already a known and leading destination in Africa”.
Terming the deal a “vanity investment”, Ikalafeng suggested the funds should be put towards “safety for travellers, lights and maintenance”.
A statement from the DA referred to the proposal as “a slap in the face of every South African whose hard-earned tax will be used to sponsor a first-world football team” and “an insult for the South African tourism and travel sector which was decimated, and in many cases completely destroyed, during and post Covid”.
The DA said it would be tabling the matter at the next tourism portfolio committee meeting in Parliament. The party also announced that it was sending a “delegation from DA Abroad” to go to Tottenham Hotspur’s headquarters in North London this week to enquire about the deal.
Spurs is due to play Manchester City at the club’s home stadium in London on Sunday.
The Freedom Front Plus stated on Wednesday morning that the party will be lodging a complaint about the proposed deal with the Public Protector, and suggested that the funds “must rather be used to mitigate the detrimental effects that the Covid-19 regulations had on small to medium-sized tourism enterprises”.
Others found the funny side with reference to Spurs’ dismal recent performance in the Premier League.
Well-known local cartoonist Carlos Amato observed on social media:
In Lindiwe’s defence, this deal to put “Visit SA” on the Spurs shirt does have the virtue of seamless brand alignment. Both Spurs & the SA state are defined by decades of waste & underachievement, and both are spearheaded by a guy who collapses whenever an opponent touches him.
— Carlos Amato (@CarlosCartoons) February 1, 2023
DM
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The colour red does not make a hellhole more attractive; clean streets, crime-free suburbs, working traffic lights and effective policing will.
Well done DM for exposing this travesty. The advertising of state & parastatal entities is a definite area of concern – the return on investment usually being minimal. SAA used to sponsor the ATP Tour finals in London a few years ago. Randwater also advertised at the Springbok / Italy game in Genoa last year. All expense trips for executives might be the incentive at stake.
this : “in order to ensure “a valid expense against savings identified in the current year budget (rather than possibly returning it to National Treasury)”.” is what is truly stuffed about not doing zero-based budgets in government.
it is clear from that statement that SA Tourism has not spent its budget, it imagines that it can now rush through this big expense, before 31 March, thereby consuming the R1b instead of returning the funds to Treasury.
I trust that Treasury reads DM and will red card this deal. Has Treasury commented?
From someone who cannot understand the Constitution, I would expect exactly this type of behavior.
Someone in SA Tourism obviously watches Arsenal games & thought this was a good idea for SA Tourism. See “Visit Rwanda” on all Arsenal player shirt sleeves.
IF the deal actually does go through, we’ll probably have the Tory government attempting to send refugees to South Africa………….
Good one!
It is a sad day for South Africa when we consider to sponsor a foreign soccer team rather than spending the funds on our local teams to become true winners, thus being the ambassadors for ZA. The Spurs concept is a reflection on how far our government leadership has moved from the reality in our country! Another saddening story – almost unbelievable!
@Schalk 100% absolutely spot on!!!!!
@DM – Thanks for spotting this – my monthly membership is paying dividends!
Mine too. One would think that Mr Ramaphosa would put an immediate stop to all this nonsensical behavior.
What are these idiots thinking! The only benefit of this kind of promotion is to the fat cats get a few freebees and some kickbacks no doubt, never mind the tragic state of this country courtesy of the ANC.
Hmmm, I’m not sure all this outrage is warranted just yet. Advertising your country is like advertising your business, you need to spend money to make money, and depending on the exposure may actually be a valid marketing tactic. I’m sure 99% of football fans have noticed “Visit Rwanda” on the sleeves of Arsenal players and on billboards at the stadium. Is it good spend? We don’t know, yet. We should hear more commentary from marketers, less from politicians. If the tourism department has budget allocated to marketing maybe they should be able to explore opportunities without hysterical howling from all quarters. Also, the argument that spending money in the first world is wrong is fallacious, if you want to attract visitors from first world markets that is where your marketing money is going to go.
I’m not a fan of Lindiwe Sisulu, but I think we should save our indignation for things that are objectively wrong, not things that are just bold with big price tags. We need more bold, blue-sky thinking in this country, and then argue the merits objectively, rather than knee-jerk responses.
I like your common sense comment, but there must be better ways to advertise SA as a holiday destination. Angola has illustrated the country in a great publicity film running on all the EURONEWS channels seen by millions in all European countries and most likely at a more reasonable price. Also, it is not a good moment with all the mess reigning in the country. Above all, safety cannot be assured. Power and water come and go and you cannot expect any help from the police or other SA institutions if you get into trouble.
This support of a soccer team is an infectious idea.
Ms Sisulu probably caught it from the Msunduzi Municipality who, despite being broke and under administration for 3-4 years, voted to give the Maritzburg United team yet more money, this time R19m.
O woe is me, O bitter, bitter woe.
If its state funds should there not be a tender put out to ALL football teams to see who comes back with the best proposal and return on investment. Maybe the Springboks are a better return on advertising given the soon to be World Cup. Next we will have Arts and Culture wanting to advertise in Harry’s book.
Here is what ChatGPT had to say about the deal:
Lindiwe Sisulu, a name to be known,
A leader of power, and a heart of stone.
She fights for what’s right, for what’s just and fair,
And brings hope to the people, with her presence so rare.
And now she turns her gaze, to the world of sport,
With a proposal to sponsor, Tottenham Hotspurs of the court.
For she sees the power, in the game they play,
To bring people together, in a united way.
The roar of the crowd, the thrill of the chase,
The teamwork and passion, on full display.
With Lindiwe’s backing, Tottenham will soar,
And show the world, what Africa has in store.
For sport has the power, to break down walls,
And bring people together, despite their falls.
With Lindiwe Sisulu, leading the way,
Tottenham will conquer, in the most beautiful way.
So here’s to Lindiwe, and her bold proposal,
To bring hope to the people, with her visionary goal.
And here’s to Tottenham, and their future bright,
With Lindiwe Sisulu, as their shining light.
That’s BRILLIANT! 🤣🤣
Not only do I see why the AI’s in Terminator and Battlestar Galactica came to realize that they were superior and humans were a mere pestilence, I’m coming to agree with them 🤺👾🤖👻😆
“Like any board, the [SA Tourism] board is independent and Minister Sisulu does not interfere with its decisions,” it stated. Yes, right! Like the almost successful state capture of SARS during the Zuma years where every single ANC minister at the time HAD to have been aware of what was going on with the slow and steady take over of SOEs but they remained silent and complicit while Jacob continued his plundering. Highly unlikely Minister Sisulu was not going to have a personal gain in this latest intended raping of the country’s funds.
Really????
And we have no money to keep the lights on keep the lights on……
This must be a joke….
Just when I think nothing the ruling party (as they refer to themselves) could get up to would surprise me anymore… snot klap!… I am once more stunned at their arrogance and stupidity!
Shows how out of touch they have grown with the general mood among “we the people”…
Incomprehensible.
How many other departments have not spent their budgets and are planning nefarious expenditures rather than returning the money to Treasury so that it can be redirected to keep the lights on at hospitals, water pump stations, sewerage plants etc.?
We should ask what value we get from this ‘SA Tourism ministry and department’ other than a cadre deployment opportunity overflowing with incompetence.
One would have thought that there are many more appropriate ways to spend a billion Rand in the tourism industry. Not least to lend a hand to the smaller businesses that were ravaged by the covid pandemic. Many jobs were lost as businesses folded, leaving families virtually destitute. Surely we need to help our own tourist industry recover before sponsoring a wealthy English soccer team?
Being a Geordie, I am more than willing to hop on a plane; 1st class of course, and negotiate a deal for half a billion with the management of Newcastle United. A premier league side supported better than most.
No kickback required, other than the obligatory 10%.
From a country in decline it would make a lot more sense to spend a billion rands on harnessing the best electrical engineers in the world (and they may well be South Africans) and give them free rein to solve our energy crisis. Let Spurs alone to continue unimpeded their lacklustre history in the sporting world.
One issue missed by commentators is that the rush to get the deal signed was to avoid SA Tourism’s unspent budget being returned to Treasury. To have this much marketing budget unspent at this point in the financial year reveals deep incompetence in the management and Board of SA Tourism. Quelle surprise. Sack the lot of them.
I’m in total agreement Paul Zille
As an avid, and long suffering, Spurs supporter and a taxpayer in good standing of 45 years, I look forward to getting my allocation of the freebie tickets!
Isn’t it a bit early in the year for an April Fool’s joke? Or is foolishness an all year round event? Are there engineers in the team who can fix Eskom or Prasa? Will the team coaches be obliged to hold serious soccer training in communities where there is will but no way? Take on South African interns for coaching training, physiotherapy, sports management? And I thought the flagpole idiocy was the low point!
In my opinion this has nothing to do with tourism and everything to do with helping the ANC win the football fan vote in 2024 by portraying the opposition as anti-football. Also, Minister Sisulu lacks the imagination to come up with an idea so magnificently daft.
Agreed! Everything the ANC does is guided by the need to hold the vote. Like writing off the ESKOM debt for SOWETO and other captured municipalities!
Which he part of the dear minister’s image isn’t already tarnished?
So I am left with the following question. Either Sisulu is lying and claims she had nothing to do with this ‘deal’ or she was so busy trying to be a RET muppet that she genuinely didn’t know. Which means she was clearly not doing her job in Tourism.
Either or! Maybe even and.
Her department is obviously trying to spend the tourism budget they were too useless to apply sensibly, but why in this very strange way?
How Eurocentric can we go? After all is said and done we sponsor the colonists who have still not admitted to or apologised for what they did to us.
Or might there be a Russian oligarch in the mix? And how much is the lady getting under the table? A house in London, a loaded bank account, a luxury vehicle?
She cannot be this stupid. Something is very rotten here!
Enough is enough! Send this woman to Siberia!
This sponsorship shows how far from the harsh realities of the people of South Africa our so-called leaders have moved. While we battle with load shedding, soaring prices, and lawlessness, they plan a vanity project like this!
R1bn to advertise the opportunity for tourists to swim in sewerage or R1bn to fix the sewerage. Which would be better for SA tourism…… clearly a very difficult question for some
Tottenham Hotspurs is owned by a private investment company with the equity held by two individuals only, the original founder and the club captain.
It’s based in the Bahamas which is a tax haven and an ideal place to invest taken offshore. Maybe worth some extra digging?
Whenever one has decided they’ve reached rock-bottom another genius comes along with a deeper hole. Some Spurs fans in SA Tourism ? I imagine complementary seats are part of the deal.
Are we to assume that there are just pure coincidences in this dodgy deal.
Donna-Maria Cullen is Executive Director of Tottenham. She was previously with the Lord Bell’s group of companies – remember Bell Pottinger! Bell Pottinger’s demise was from criminalised links to Jacob Zuma and the Gupta’s. Lindiwe Sisulu’s as Tourism Ministers has a well known slavish subservience to Zuma and the RET faction.
“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” – Who is getting the RET / Zuma backhand?
Another “flagpole moment”.
These are the same idiots that thought it’s a great idea to offer the COVID relief fund for the tourism sector to black people and black owned companies only (which required the courts yet again to settle what should be obvious), and are now being led by a woman that openly holds the constitution in full contempt.
Ramaphosas inaction in this regard is “shocking” as usual, there really can be zero excuses for this woman who has failed every single portfolio she has had her fingers on; yet still he allows her to destroy even more. When a leader appoints a knowb bad resource, is it the resources fault or the leader that made that assignment?
Some people seem to be more outraged by a bad sexist joke of the opposition leader or lack of a university degree than things that are actually destroying this country. Madness.
A failing team sponsored by a failing state while people starve and tourists are afraid to visit.
As a taxpayer I shudder at the thought of my money being handed over to support the materialistic lifestyles (and hairstyles) of a bunch of overpaid prima donnas who run around diving on a field once or twice a week, regardless of the team. Soccer is not even a real sport, its a pantomime with excess, pretentiousness and corruption at the heart of it and I want nothing to do with it!
Wonder how many other hands are /were sharing in this ‘little’ potjie of beans!