SA Tourism justify Tottenham sponsorship proposal

SA Tourism acting CEO, Themba Khumalo, has confirmed that there are intentions to sign an advertising agreement with Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, but refuted claims that the deal is sealed.

The Daily Maverick reported on Tuesday that the South African government was preparing a deal worth R1 billion to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur.

The proposal has been met with heavy criticism from different stakeholders in South Africa; some have seen it as an opportunity to boost tourism.

The sponsor would see the South Africa brand on the English Premiership club’s sleeve starting from 2024 until 2027. The Rwandan government have taken a similar approach with a sleeve sponsorship for Arsenal.

“The version of the story that you are being told is not true. It was leaked out of context and this whole thing could have been avoided. If we just had a conversation about why we are doing this,” Khumalo said during a media briefing on Thursday.

“The board made a conditional approval and the condition was that we believe that commercial this makes sense. But can you go and align it with all stakeholders. Including the Minister, the Director General, Treasury and provinces.

“But before we could do that this issue was already in the public domain. So all stakeholders say they were not consulted, it’s the truth. We were still on our way before this thing was leaked,” he explained.

NO DEAL SIGNED WITH TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR YET

“There was a question about whether there is a signed contract with the entity, No. There is no signed contract. There was a conversation around the boardroom table. Conditional approval. It was conditional so you can’t go and sign until you fulfill the conditions. Is there an intention to? Absolutely.”

MINISTER LINDIWE SISULU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE DEAL

Khumalo also clarified that Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu was not fully briefed of the proposal.

“The Minister could not be briefed until such time that the board had made a decision to support or not to support. So that meeting was on Tuesday evening. So there is no way that the Minister could have known about the details of this deal before the board had made a decision.”

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