Despite independent report, alleged corrupt official retained by SAT

22 August 2023

The South African Tourism (SAT) interim board as well as Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille have on numerous occasions announced that they are investigating allegations of corruption presented by whistle-blowers against the SAT Acting CEO, Nomasonto Ndlovu. It appears that this is nothing more than mere rhetoric as, despite unambiguous information freely available, the allegations against her had seemingly not been addressed.

In a response letter dated 13 May 2023 by South African Tourism (SAT) interim board chairman, Tim Harris, to my letter pertaining to Ndlovu, Harris indicated that the SAT interim board would retain her in this position despite corruption allegations against her, claiming that he was unaware of such allegations. On 23 May 2023, I then wrote to Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille about this matter but have received no response to my correspondence to date.

Since then, I have continued my investigation. I have obtained the KPMG final report, dated 1 August 2017 into the Dinokeng Festival Investigation. The Dinokeng Festival was to have taken place in Tshwane in September 2014 which included hosting expensive international music stars such as Nicki Minaj. The KPMG 88-page report specifically mentions Nomasonto Ndlovu 46 times. Ndlovu was Group Head: Communication, Marketing and Events for Tshwane at the time.

The KPMG report provides a plethora of detailed information, only some of which includes:

how this event would provide little benefit for the city (page 37);

how no proper budget planning was undertaken (page 39);

how payments were made without supporting documentation (page 56); and

how it appears that inflated payment figures provided by Ndlovu do not match invoiced amounts with the differences not explained (page 58, page 69 and page 80).

The KPMG report recommended on page 85 that the City of Tshwane should consider action against Nomasonto Ndlovu. Although the Dinokeng Festival matter is a separate process and has nothing to do with the National Department of Tourism nor SAT, the KPMG report must be considered when it comes to appointing and retaining Ndlovu as SAT CEO, even in an acting capacity.

I will therefore be again writing to Minister De Lille about this matter, providing her the KPMG report and requesting why in the face of all this evidence why the SAT interim board continue to retain Ndlovu in this position.

Issued by Manny de Freitas, DA Shadow Minister of Tourism, 22 August 2023