The South African government, via its marketing arm SA Tourism, want to sponsor Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur in a deal understood to be worth R910,997,814, according to the Daily Maverick.
The news was reported by Daily Maverick journalist Rebecca Davis, who had access to two confidential presentations of SA Tourism.
The report states the massive sponsorship proposal, which would 36% of the department’s annual marketing budget was set to be discussed and rubber-stamped this week by Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and the SA Tourism board.
“Sisulu, through her spokesperson Mpumzi Zuzile, initially referred Daily Maverick’s questions on the sponsorship proposal to SA Tourism, while SA Tourism had not responded to Daily Maverick’s request for comment by publication,” read a part in the article, confirming the publication attempted to get official comments from all parties involved.
“Another Sisulu spokesperson, Steve Motale, subsequently asked Daily Maverick to delay publication while his team “established the facts”. This article will be updated with further comments when received.”
It is alleged that Sisulu is trying to push through the three-year deal before an imminent Cabinet reshuffle, which is likely seeing her leaving the tourism portfolio. Furthermore, president Cyril Ramaphosa allegedly wanted to announce the whopping deal during his State of the Nation Address on 10 February.
The total value of the deal is listed at £42.5 million over three years — which converts to R910,997,814.75 (exchange rate Tuesday, 31 January 2023) in South African currency, or just under a billion rand.
It is understood that SA Tourism want to follow in the footsteps of other so called destination management organisation (DMOs) such as Abu Dhabi, who have a deal with Manchester City, Malta, who a deal with Manchester United, and Rwanda, who have a deal with Arsenal.
It is believed that Spurs have sought such a sponsorship from SA Tourism since 2017 already and that the deal would run from February 2023 until June 2026, with the option to extend for another year.
It is further claimed that the near R1 billion investment will receive media exposure to the value of £277 million, or almost R6 billion, with SA Tourism receiving “stadium branding, match-day advertising, a 5-14 day training camp in South Africa with the full first Spurs team — as well as access to free tickets and stadium hospitality” as part of the sponsorship.
Meanwhile, an unnamed tourism expert who was consulted by Daily Maverick about the proposed deal said that the claims made about the marketing value of the deal were “absolute, unmitigated bullshit”.
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has since come out and pointed towards several “inaccuracies and untruths aimed at tarnishing her image” in the Daily Maverick article, which she says is aimed “to drive a political agenda”.
