Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Manny de Freitas MP.
The news that South African Tourism (SAT) Acting Chief Financial Officer, Johan van der Walt, has been served with a notice of suspension, although welcomed, is an admission that van der Walt had links to an agency that was set to receive over R30 million from SAT from the controversial R1 billion sponsorship deal with the English football team, Tottenham Hotspur. News reports indicate that Van der Walt had admitted to links to the agency.
The SAT Board chairman, Thomazile Botha, had admitted that Van der Walt had not declared his conflict of interest nor had recused himself from meetings discussing the sponsorship deal.
This is after the SAT unambiguously told the Tourism Portfolio Committee that none of the SAT officials present, including van der Walt, had any connection to any agency linked to this deal.
This only intensifies the urgency for the commencement of a Parliamentary investigation into this matter.
At the next Portfolio Committee meeting of Tourism I will be calling for the investigation to be urgently launched as it appears there is much hidden information that needs to be exposed.