South Africa’s Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has expressed “deep concern” about recent media reports about alleged procurement irregularities linked to the awarding of tenders to manage the flagship Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba trade shows.
A City Press article published on Sunday (July 6) flagged two independent audit reports that “uncovered serious tender irregularities in the awarding of the two tenders” last year.
The newspaper claims that the audits – conducted by Chapu Chartered Accountants and Abacus Financial Crime Advisory – revealed that scores by the bid evaluation committee members were tampered in favour of events management company Pomme Express.
It is alleged that SA Tourism spent R10 million (€478 800) on the audits – only to “turn a blind eye to the irregularities”.
The publication further claims that, after one of the losing bidders, Synergy Business Events, hauled SA Tourism to court, the DMO denied the existence of both reports.
In a statement released late on Monday evening, De Lille described the media coverage as misleading, asserting that action has been taken on the audit findings.
“At no point were the reports denied – rather the matter is under legal processes as the completeness and admissibility of certain findings were contested. Their findings were received, reviewed and informed internal consequence management actions. Officials implicated in procedural violations were removed from procurement committees as part of an internal disciplinary process initiated in 2024.”
She further reiterated SA Tourism’s longstanding claims that the R100 million (€4.78 million) tender for the event was never awarded. SA Tourism COO Darryl Erasmus previously told Tourism Update that the 2025 Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba trade shows were organised in collaboration with a “wide range of service providers” after the tender was cancelled.
De Lille added that she has since requested a further briefing from the SA Tourism Board, stressing she expects “full cooperation in ensuring transparency going forward.”
*This article has been updated to omit certain unconfirmed information around the management structure of Pomme Express
Source: https://www.tourismupdate.com/article/de-lille-denies-ignoring-sat-tender-irregularities
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