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Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille addresses media briefing.
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has sought to allay fears of a crisis in the tourism sector.
This comes as a public spat between her and the now dissolved South Africa Tourism (SAT) board persists.
De Lille dissolved the board last week, accusing it of breaching governance regulations.
The board on the other had accused her of meddling in its affairs.
De Lille insists that her decision to dissolve the board is justified.
She says, “There’s no crisis in tourism at all, just yesterday I engaged with the Tourism Business Council whole sector and we planned the implementation of a tourism partnership growth plan, so there is no crisis.”
De Lille says, “The reason why I’ve dissolved the SAT board, it didn’t start yesterday, I didn’t wake up one morning and decided I’m going to dissolve it. I’m a fair person. I had a meeting with the board on the 4th of July and I raised several issues with them that were outstanding, like for instance the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) report came out in April of this year and they haven’t touched it. When I asked them, they claimed they never received it, we soon got the proof that they did receive it.”
