South Africa Tourism employees have accused the interim board of using the hotline and whistle-blowing as a persecution tool to intimidate staff members.
The employees who did not want to be named said some executive committee members were ambushed and had their laptops raided in what the interim board termed as investigations.
The employees said the interim board chairperson, Tim Harris, had failed to solicit funding from SA Tourism for his world surfing league.
SA Tourism has been making headlines. In May, the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Tourism accused the board of wanting to dominate the entity.
This was after Kholeka Zama, a board member, sent a letter, dated April 27, stating that the board had resolved to reroute the delegation of authority from executives to the board. The letter was delivered three days after Zama, Tim Harris and Vincent Zwelibanzi Mntambo were appointed to the interim board.
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille appointed Harris, Zama and Mntambo after dissolving the previous board.
Some members of Parliament said they did not support Harris’s and Mntambo’s appointments, citing a conflict of interest and reputational risk.
At the time, committee chairperson Tandi Mahambehlala said the three were there to massacre everyone in the senior positions.
“It does not take a genius to add one plus one. And we are not going to sit here and tolerate this mass relegation of black excellence in our entities,” she had said.
A letter, titled: Update on investigations SA Tourism hotline whistle-blowing reports, addressed to staff and signed by Harris said: “As part of the SA Tourism Board’s induction process, we received a series of briefings from various units within SA Tourism.
“I also had the opportunity to address all staff to share the focus for this board’s term of office: ‘Stability to ensure effective marketing of the destination, good governance and renewed confidence in the entity to protect budgets and allow filling of vacancies and move away from acting roles’.
“During the briefings we received, management brought to the board’s attention seven outstanding whistle-blowing reports submitted through the SA Tourism Hotline concerning incidents that could have a negative reputational impact on the entity.”
The letter said two additional reports had been copied to the government ethics hotline. “These reports date back to as far back as May 2022. All the reports have been handed over to the board through the escalation process. One was already under investigation.”
According to the letter, the investigations started on July 6 with data preservation to ensure all the necessary information was secured and available to investigators.
It said data was being sourced from various officials within SA Tourism who would have interacted with pertinent information during their work.
“I would like to emphasise that these officials are not necessarily implicated in the reported incidences. We anticipate that these investigations will continue until the end of September. The board encourages officials to continue co-operating with the investigation,” it said.
The employees said the board was creating a crisis to bring its own people into the company’s interim position of CEO and CFO.
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