By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate allegations of maladministration and improper conduct at SA Tourism (SAT).
SAT is a public national marketing agency of the South African government, with the goal of marketing tourism in the country, with a R1.3 billion budget allocation.
The proclamation empowers the SIU to investigate allegations of irregularities in the procurement of media buying services linked to three specific invoices and purchase orders.
It will also focus on payments made for services that were not rendered between March 1, 2020, and November 21, 2025.
The tourism agency has been embroiled on allegations of irregularities in awarding a tender worth over R100 million.
The company, Pomme Express, which was awarded the bid to organise Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba 2025, faced claims of falsified documents and cronyism.
The scandal worsened when corruption allegations emerged after spending around R10 million on audit reports.
The Auditor-General also flagged a R24.1 million budget overspend and weak internal controls, with the agency achieving only 89% of its performance targets.
“The investigation will focus on contracts where media buying services were paid for but either not delivered or not fully executed as stipulated in the agreements. The investigation will determine whether the media buying contracts and related payments were conducted in a manner that was not fair, competitive, transparent, equitable, or cost-effective,” says a statement by the SIU.
The investigation will focus on events between 1 March 2020 and 21 November 2025, and will examine possible violations of the law and internal policies at SAT over payments for services not rendered.
This is not the first SIU investigation of SAT affairs, though this is the first ordered by the president. Two previous investigations were self-referred by the SAT board, one of them concerning the aborted R1 billion sponsorship deal with English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, which was intended to promote SA as a tourist destination. The deal faced massive pushback for being unbudgeted and for conflicting with the Public Finance Management Act.
The SIU investigation into the Tottenham Hotspur deal resulted in recommendations that those, responsible face disciplinary action; however, most of the implicated individuals had left SAT by the time the report was released.
In August 2025, the SAT board placed CEO Nombulelo Guliwe on precautionary suspension for not following due process in suspending the company secretary and chief marketing officer.
Tourism minister Patricia de Lille dissolved the SAT board soon after this, claiming that its suspension of Guliwe was unlawful in the absence of an appropriately appointed chairperson. The previous chair, Professor Gregory Davids, had resigned in July.
The minister says she was in the process of appointing a replacement. Still, suspended board members say her delays in appointing a replacement hobbled their ability to function as a board. To overcome this, the board appointed board member Lawson Naidoo as the board representative pending the minister’s appointment of a replacement for Davids.
De Lille took exception to this, and the matter is now before the courts, with the former board members seeking to set aside the minister’s decision. All but three of the suspended board members brought an urgent application before the high court, but it was thrown out in October for lack of urgency. The minister’s legal team demanded that all suspended board members be joined to the proceedings. This has now been done, though the minister has objected to their joinder.
“We did exactly what the minister asked of us, but now she objects. This is clearly nothing more than an abuse of the court process and a waste of taxpayer money,” says suspended board member Lawson Naidoo.
Meanwhile Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on Tourism, said the announced probe was “long-overdue step,” and one the DA has been calling for as SAT has lurched from crisis to crisis under De Lille’s mismanagement.