Robben Island Museum - a World Heritage Site and one of the top tourist attractions in the world - lost R25-million in the last financial year, the National Assembly portfolio committee for arts and culture heard on Tuesday.
The institution, one of eight World Heritage Sites in South Africa, also received a qualified report from the auditor-general because of problems with financial information.
On Tuesday, its management briefed the committee on its annual report.
Chief finance officer Lesetja Masekwameng said that besides government funding, the museum's main income generator was the ferrying of visitors to the island and the sale of curios.
'We exhausted all the resources we had' "Unfortunately, we couldn't have smooth ferry (rides).
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"We were supposed to have our own ferry in operation on September 1 and that didn't happen.
"We had to curtail the number of people.
"The ferries we have are very slow and very old and they are not able to cope and this happened in our peak season," said Masekwameng.
The new ferry is expected to make its inaugural trip on November 19.
Masekwameng said the old ferries were constantly experiencing mechanical problems and maintenance costs had escalated as a result.
"We exhausted all the resources we had.
"We recorded a deficit of R25m.
"We had to suspend several projects. We didn't have the necessary cash flow.
"The reality of the matter is we are only now getting the boat we were supposed to get a year ago.
"We would have loved to come to this committee and say 'we have made a surplus like in the previous year'. So generally it was a challenging year from a financial point of view," said Masekwameng.
In April, Robben Island management also came in for criticism in parliament for having an increased deficit, a lack of proper record keeping and failing to note the historic Mayibuye collection on its asset register.
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