Tourism portfolio committee tells Lindiwe Sisulu to stop Spurs proposal immediately

GAUTENG – Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Parliament’s portfolio committee chairperson Thandi Mahambehlala have bumped heads on who has the power to pull the plug on a proposed sponsorship deal with English premiership team, Tottenham Hotspurs.

The deal would see SA Tourism spend over R900 million over the next three years to market South Africa to international tourists. After a marathon six-hour briefing by SA Tourism on Tuesday, Mahambehlala declared the tourism portfolio committee was putting an immediate stop to the process.

But Sisulu said Parliament did not have that authority. Mahambehlala said the committee would write to Treasury to ask that the money be reprioritised to the benefit of struggling South Africans.