When acting SA Tourism CEO Themba Khumalo addressed the media on Thursday about the controversial R1-billion Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship proposal, he was adamant that “no agencies” were involved as middlemen in the deal.
Khumalo did not answer Daily Maverick’s subsequent enquiry, during the session’s Q&A, about whether this was accurate.
But in the initial PowerPoint presentation shown to the SA Tourism board, there are multiple references to an agency which will be used in “activating” the sponsorship — and which must be paid a £1.5-million (R31.3-million) upfront fee.
That agency is named as WWP Group.
Daily Maverick can reveal that SA Tourism’s interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Johan van der Walt, is a director of a number of companies linked to the WWP Group — and has admitted to doing work directly for the WWP Group in the past.
Van der Walt’s name is in the metadata of the initial PowerPoint presentation, revealing him as the author of the initial Spurs proposal presentation.
The agency named in documents as part of the Spurs deal
The SA Tourism PowerPoint presentation on the Spurs proposal, which is dated 27 January 2023, contains six separate references to an “agency” which is key to the implementation of the deal.
In the first reference, it states that Tottenham Hotspur “approached our agency WWP Group in an unsolicited bid for a sponsorship partnership”.
It proceeds to state that SA Tourism’s agency must be paid £1.5-million (R31.3-million) by 31 March 2023 to activate the deal:
“To ensure that all origination and preparatory work around this sponsorship is concluded in time so that the deal can be 100% activated on 1 July 2023, SA Tourism will brief its agency for Project Origination to the Rand equivalent of £1 500 000 in terms of which all deliverables associated with this project needs to be completed by 31 March 2023 and all costs associated with this to be paid by WWP Group to Tottenham Hotspurs [sic]”.
It adds that SA Tourism has “identified savings on its current year budget” to pay this fee.
In the next slide, the presentation reiterates that this payment must be made to the WWP Group, although it now states — for unclear reasons — that only 90% of the amount is payable upfront:
“90% of the Rand equivalent of £1 500 000 will be payable upfront so that [SA Tourism’s] agency can do relevant origination/activation payments to Tottenham”.
The WWP Group in question is a creative agency with headquarters in Lonehill, Johannesburg. Its website describes the company as “a young & dynamic strategic creative agency, founded on the core values of visual and experiential storytelling, meticulous planning and flawless execution”.
Among the work it advertises in its portfolio is the Jab4Tourism campaign which SA Tourism ran during the Covid-19 pandemic, calling on South Africans to get vaccinated to hasten the return of tourism to the country.
Its CEO is listed as Jermaine Tumelo Besten.
How SA Tourism’s interim CFO, Johan van der Walt, fits in
South African company records show that WWP Group CEO Besten shares business interests with SA Tourism CFO Johan van der Walt in a number of companies.
Besten and Van der Walt are both listed as active directors of a company called Enterstage Africa, while they are also both listed as members of a company called WWP Events.
Van der Walt is also listed as a director of a company called Witch and Wizard and a member of a company called WWP Studios.
All the companies mentioned above are legally registered to the same Lonehill address as that of SA Tourism’s agency, WWP Group.
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Van der Walt confirmed to Daily Maverick that he was indeed linked to the above companies, stating: “That is correct.”
Van der Walt only joined SA Tourism as interim CFO in January 2023, but previously served in the role on a permanent basis between 2001 and 2013.
He said in written responses to Daily Maverick that when he rejoined SA Tourism, “I completed the ‘Declaration of Interest’ form and ensured that it 100% correlates to the CIPC [government company index] records”.
“It is also important to point out that I am employed at SA Tourism as an interim CFO on a seven-month contract only.”
CFO admits doing past work with agency, denies financial benefit
Asked by Daily Maverick to confirm what the PowerPoint metadata reveals — that he was the creator of the document — Van der Walt responded: “I can confirm that my laptop was used and I contributed to all the presentations in respect of the proposed Tottenham Hotspur partnership.”
The CFO did not deny that the presentation states that an upfront fee of £1,500,000 is payable to the WWP Group, and admitted having undertaken work for the company in the past.
“I have no financial interest in WWP Group, but I have in the past done some consulting work for WWP Group from time to time — predominantly work of a tax nature,” Van der Walt stated.
“These have been duly declared to SA Tourism.”
He did not comment on the possible conflict of interest created by this situation.
Bad, bad Daily Maverick
Earlier on Thursday, SA Tourism’s acting CEO, Khumalo, lashed out angrily in his press briefing at both Daily Maverick’s reporting on the issue and the person responsible for leaking the presentations.
Suggesting that leaking the documents was “un-South African”, Khumalo proposed that the person responsible should be “isolated” when found.
Khumalo confirmed that the intention was still to press ahead with the R1-billion deal.
“Before we were rudely interrupted [by Daily Maverick’s reporting], we were in conversation,” Khumalo said.
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“We have had to halt that conversation so that we can have this conversation and get all our stakeholders back onside. Should we succeed in that respect, the conversation will then proceed.”
Khumalo repeatedly characterised the controversy over the proposal as a result of the fact that the sponsorship deal had been leaked to the public out of context, without disputing any of the major facts around it.
“This is simply a misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up through dialogue,” Khumalo said. DM