South African Tourism’s (SAT) interim board says it stands behind the organisation’s new acting CEO Nomasonto Ndlovu and will continue to support her as she faces anonymous whistle-blower allegations of accepting a bribe from Qatar Airways in December 2022.
In an emailed response to Moneyweb queries, newly appointed chairperson of the interim board Tim Harris said they will continue to support Ndlovu at this critical time and believe the acting CEO followed due process in the matter.
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“The Board has been looking into the matter … and have established that the acting CEO followed a process for approvals to accept the invitation by Qatar Airways in 2022,” Harris said.
SAT – the state-run official national tourism marketing agency – finds itself entangled in yet another controversy to deal with, following the Tottenham Hotspurs sponsorship debacle earlier this year, which led to the resignation of its acting CFO Johan van der Walt in February and just last week the resignation of its former acting CEO Themba Khumalo.
Ndlovu, SAT’s chief operating officer, was appointed acting CEO following Khumalo’s resignation just days before the annual Africa Travel Indaba in Durban this week – the agency’s main international annual tourism tradeshow.
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The latest issue to rattle the leadership at SAT, follows a Business Report story published on Tuesday related to Ndlovu allegedly received a R100 000 bribe from Qatar Airways last year.
According to the report, the allegations were made through SAT’s whistle-blower hotline by an unidentified person. The individual alleged that Ndlovu may have benefitted from “flights in business class, accommodation and World Cup tickets”.
Investigation underway
Despite the SAT board backing Ndlovu, Harris told Moneyweb that an investigation is underway into the matter.
He said investigations into the allegations were initiated in March 2023 and will be led by audit firm KPMG.
Although it is not clear when the investigation will be concluded and when the public can expect to learn of its outcomes, Harris stressed that whatever findings are made will be reported through the appropriate governance and oversight structures.
“To make sure that all internal policies – as well as the prescripts of the PFMA – were followed, the investigation by Internal Audit will continue, and the board will issue a statement once it has been concluded,” he said.
Previous whistle-blower claims …
This is not the first time SAT has had to navigate allegations of wrongdoings being made against its top executive via the whistle-blower hotline.
Back in 2019, then SAT CEO Sisa Ntshona was suspended by the board after an unidentified whistle-blower levelled allegations against him.
The whistle-blower’s claims were never made public, but Ntshona had to face a forensic investigation by law firm Bowmans as well as an internal inquiry. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing, nine months after the initial allegations and reinstated as SAT CEO.
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Lauretta Ngakane who was at the time Ntshona’s spokesperson told Moneyweb that the whole debacle was fuelled by “nefarious motives of a nameless whistle-blower.”
Ntshona later resigned as CEO of the tourism agency.
No comment
Moneyweb tried to get ahold of Ndlovu for comment regarding the allegations, however her phone went unanswered.
The CEOs of some of the country’s major tourism industry bodies refused to comment on the matter when asked by Moneyweb how such allegations against the interim CEO could affect stability at the entity in charge of promoting destination SA to the world. These organisations include the Tourism Business Council of SA and the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association.
Moneyweb has reached out to Qatar Airways for comment on the issue, with no luck of a response.
Listen to Jeremy Maggs speaking to Harris on Moneyweb@Midday about the changes at SAT (or read the transcript)
You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.
