Africa-Press – South-Africa. The business sector has expressed support for the disbanded SA Tourism (SAT) board fired by minister Patricia de Lille.
“The board had the right mix of expertise and leadership to help address instability in SAT,” the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) said on Thursday.
After meetings with the board and the tourism ministry over the past 24 hours, the council said: “The minister’s decision to dissolve it is not aligned with the position we shared and raises serious concern in the sector.
“While we recognise government has cited governance challenges as part of its rationale — and we note the appointment and removal of the board is a prerogative of the minister — equally so, the dissolved board shared serious challenges it faced in executing its mandate.
“We believe the board had begun to bring stability and continuity when this was most needed. Industry stakeholders had confidence in its composition and we had seen encouraging signs of progress in strengthening SAT’s credibility and focus.”
Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the TBCSA, said: “We will remain a constructive partner to government but will also continue to advocate strongly for decisions that build, rather than destabilise, the sector.”
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