By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has removed the South African Tourism Board chairperson Makhosazana Khanyile and her deputy, Advocate Lizelle Dominique-Jordaan over the irregular meetings.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the minister said, that she had instructed Khanyile and Dominique-Jordaan, to vacate their positions with immediate effect and become ordinary board members.
De Lille said she has appointed Dr Gregory Davids as the new chairperson.
The minister added that she afforded the duo an opportunity to make representations before a decision is made, but they did not respond to her request.
“I had requested this information as these meetings have a direct impact on budget allocation and because the meeting frequencies were excessive. The SAT Board chairperson and deputy chairperson did not respond to me on these questions in their reply.”
She said the board meetings have so far in this financial year cost nearly R900,000 of the budgeted R1.44 million.
“For this financial year, so far, close to R900,000 of the R1.44million has been accrued by the SAT Board for 54 meetings from March and up until the first week of September 2024,” she said.
“In recent months I had become concerned with the number of meetings the board held and I had written to the SAT Board chairperson asking for reasons why an excessive amount of meetings were held (27 meetings) in the first quarter of 2024 (between March and June 2024).
The minister said even at the recent Tourism Portfolio Committee meeting in Parliament, concerns were raised around the excessive amount of board meetings held so far this year.