By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister of Tourism Patrica De Lille has dissolved the board of directors at South African Tourism (SAT) in terms of section 16(3)(a) of the Tourism Act No. 3 of 2014 (“the Act”) following a series of governance issues.
The move comes on the heels of the board’s decision to suspend CEO Nombulelo Guliwe for misconduct last week.
SAT is the national tourism agency responsible for the marketing of South Africa as a preferred tourist destination.
The agency was recently plunged into a tender scandal after allegations of irregularities in the awarding of a R100 million tender to Pomme Express, a company reported to have failed to show proof of experience and alleged to have provided false and misleading information in its bid to organise Meetings Africa 2025 and Africa’s Travel Indaba 2025.
SAT has disputed the awarding of a tender to Pomme Express,and said an independent forensic investigation into the tender was initiated in December 2024 and is currently underway.
The minister gave the nine-member board until Thursday night last week to explain why it should not be dissolved.
In a statement, De Lille said, she informed members of the Board of her decision on 19 August 2025, following consideration of their written representations as to why the Board should not be dissolved.
“In their written representations dated 14 August 2025, the Board members failed to address the important issue about the legality of the procedure followed by the Board when it convened a special Board meeting on 01 August 2025 at which the unlawful resolution was taken.”
De Lille said that the board was a creature of statute created in terms of section 13 of the Act and as such, the board derives its powers from the enabling statute that created it, the Act, read together with the Board Charter.
She said the board must always be guided by the principle of legality in the exercise of its powers, which is part of the rule of law as set out in section 1(c) of the Constitution
“I was in the process of filling the vacant positions of the board as required by section 16(2) of the Act when the board took the impugned resolution on 01 August 2025. The board acted prematurely, unlawfully and ultra vires its powers when it took the impugned resolution on 01 August 2025,” she said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his latest letter to the nation published on Monday (13 January), highlighted the importance of the tourism sector – especially since the country is to host the G20 Summit, which is expected to be the biggest tourism driver in the continent.
The tourism sector is a significant contributor to growth and employment in South Africa (Ramaphosa said in 2023 the country recorded around 8.5 million international tourist arrivals, with these visitors spending over R95 billion).
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), tourism’s direct and indirect contribution to South Africa’s GDP was 8.2% in 2023.
The sector is also a big employer, employing 1.46 million people in 2023, with expectations that this will have grown to 1.7 million jobs in 2024 once the data is in.