MPs criticise Patricia De Lille for interim tourism board choices

Parliament’s tourism portfolio committee wants minister Patricia de Lille to remove two of the three people she appointed as the interim SA Tourism board (SAT), saying their appointments were a reputational risk.

In her first appearance before the committee in her new portfolio, De Lille clashed with MPs who demanded she axe former DA MP Tim Harris and businessperson Zwelibanzi Mntambo, citing a conflict of interest.

In April, De Lille appointed Harris, Mntambo and Kholeka Zama for a three-month period. That followed her dissolution of the SAT board over the proposed R1bn partnership deal with Tottenham Hotspur football club which was found to be unlawful and invalid as it did not comply with the constitution and the Public Finance Management Act.

On Tuesday, ANC and EFF MPs said it was improper for De Lille to appoint Harris because of their previous working relationship in the City of Cape Town.

“You have two members of the board coming from Wesgro (Western Cape Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency), and Tim Harris served under you in Cape Town. It’s like you are bringing in a friend,” said EFF MP Anthony Matumba.

“He’s a politician and is highly invested in SAT. Last year he wrote an email to SAT, even to junior staff members, asking for funds for the World Surfing League for a certain individual, so he’s someone who already involved in SAT. It will be a conflict of interest if he serves there. Something should have told you this guy is highly involved. How do people who served in one organisation serve in this board?”

Matumba’s views were reinforced by committee chair Tandi Mahambehlala (ANC), who said the appointments of Harris and Mntambo “border on reputational risk and conflict of interests”.

Mahambehlala also had an issue with the appointment of “a billionaire” to the board, saying Mntambo was among the “top 30 billionaires in the country”.

“You must consider the shortcomings tabled by members on the two people you have appointed. You can’t have those two people in the interim board. You must replace them because a conflict of interest is there,” Mahambehlala told De Lille.

“Were there no other people who are qualified to run an entity? Why appoint a billionaire?” she asked.

TimesLIVE could not find evidence linking Mntambo to Wesgro, as claimed by Matumba.

Harris was a DA MP between 2009 and 2014. After leaving parliament he briefly worked as director of trade and investment in the office of the executive mayor of Cape Town. De Lille was mayor at the time.

On Tuesday she defended the appointments, saying they were made based on the skills the trio possessed. She said after consulting widely with some people refusing to join the board, these were the names they came up with.

“The director-general and I agreed we need three skills, namely finance, governance and tourism expertise. We consulted widely with the tourism sector and some people were saying ‘we won’t touch that, I’ve got a reputation to protect’, and we had to get the names as soon as possible. We looked at not where people are coming from but at the necessary skills we were looking for,” she said.

Despite her explanation, MPs pushed De Lille to remove the two men. She snapped and reminded them of the separation of powers between the executive and parliament.

“I respect parliament and fully respect the wishes and concerns of the members. I will consider your concerns but you cannot instruct me what to do. I will leave here and [look at] the whole picture inclusively but nobody can instruct me,” De Lille said.

“I am also not going to get into character assassination of anybody. We are dealing with professional people here and we have explained that we were simply looking for finance and governance experience and tourism expertise and those were the three people,” she said.

Harris did not respond to request for comment while TimesLIVE could not get hold of Mntambo.

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