SA Tourism’s proposed Spurs partnership ‘offers greater advantages’ than Rwanda and Arsenal.
Themba Khumalo, the acting CEO of South Africa Tourism, explains that the agency’s proposed R910 million partnership with Tottenham Hotspur costs more than Rwanda’s equivalent partnership with Arsenal because it “offers more benefits.”
According to SABC, he denied knowledge of a potential partnership with Chelsea for R760 million.
Spurs were picked because they were the only team in the EPL’s top-performing division without a destination partner, according to Khumalo.
Since Daily Maverick leaked news of the project, South Africans have reacted angrily, questioning the over R1 billion price tag in the context of growing load-shedding and deteriorating infrastructure.
According to reports, the “Visit Rwanda” sleeve sponsorship with Arsenal, a larger team than Spurs, cost that country £10 million each year for four years. At £14.2 million a year, the contract between SA Tourism and Tottenham would cost £42.5 million over three years.
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“We have analysed the Rwanda case study. That deal was a straight media buy. It was buying access to the audience and nothing else,” Khumalo said.
“Our deal has got a lot of other benefits, like the fact that we are able to do advocacy and other creative things.
“That is why we would pay slightly more, because we have access to an extra bouquet of benefits not in the Rwanda deal.”
Asked about the criticisms of lack of “trickle down” benefits to Rwandans, Khumalo said: “In their transaction, because it was a direct media transaction, it didn’t have the on-the-ground components.
“
And we are very insistent that in our deal there will be activity on the ground in South Africa. It will affect businesses directly.”
Rwanda’s deal with Arsenal resulted in an 8% growth in tourism.
“If you look at the Rwanda supply side, the tourism platform, it’s not even close to what we have in South Africa in terms of the number of beds, tourism attractions and overall offering,” Khumalo said.
“They had an overall 8% lift over their normal growth trajectory. So when you see [a reported figure of] 22% it means they would have been growing at 14% and then 8% came above that.”
SABC announced The Fifa Match agent Ellen Chiwenga stated that he approached the South African government in 2021 to provide a R760m sleeve sponsorship with Chelsea for three years.
Khumalo stated at the SA Tourism press conference in Sandton, “I raise both my hands; I have never seen the document [on Chelsea].”
“I raise both my hands, I have never seen the document [on Chelsea],” Khumalo said at the SA Tourism press conference in Sandton.
“I have seen a completely different team, but not the one being referred to.
“Maybe it was seen by a colleague of mine, I don’t know. But formally being presented to us as an option, no, that I have not seen.”
Pressed that the SABC report was that the “tourism department” had seen the document, Khumalo said: “We wouldn’t be able to speak on behalf of the department.
“It was not communicated to me. I have not seen that proposal.
“But I have seen another proposal and I can confirm that. And the [SA Tourism] board took a decision then, not on the principle of whether we should access the audiences. It was an issue of timing that because we were in the middle of Covid-19 and it was probably not the right time.
“The conditions have changed now and that’s why we’re looking at the EPL as an aggregator of audiences.”
