SA Tourism acting CFO resigns amid Tottenham sponsorship scandal

SA Tourism’s acting CFO, Johan van der Walt, has resigned.

Board chair Thozamile Botha on Tuesday confirmed Van der Walt’s resignation, saying that it happened last Thursday.

“We sent him a letter for him to state reasons why he should not be suspended. Instead of responding to say why he should not be suspended, he resigned,” said Botha.

He said Van der Walt stated reasons for his resignation and “they are all related to the  issue we are talking about and how he got involved”.

Van der Walt was served with a notice asking him why he should not be suspended after preliminary investigations suggested he did not declare his conflict of interest or recuse himself from meetings discussing a sponsorship deal with English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur.

Daily Maverick reported Van der Walt had links to an agency that would receive a £1.5m (R33m) fee to “activate” the R1bn sponsorship deal.

Van der Walt told parliament’s tourism portfolio committee two weeks ago he had no financial interest in the agency, WWP Group, but he had done consulting work for it, mainly on tax matters.

During engagement with the committee, MPs demanded Van der Walt should tender his resignation immediately over the issue. They also wanted him and the sponsorship proposal to be investigated.

At Tuesday’s meeting, MPs questioned the legality of the Botha-led board and claimed proper procedures were not followed in its appointment.

Botha and two other board members were appointed early this month after the resignations of Enver Duminy, Ravi Nadasen and Rosemary Anderson, who cited a difference of opinion, shortly after the proposed deal was exposed.

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