CNN
—
The South African government’s tourism commission has conditionally approved a plan to sponsor English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur amid the energy crisis, the South African Tourism Authority (SAT) announced in a statement. dad. declare on Thursday.
The controversial funding deal, which has yet to be finalized, is reported to be around $58 million (R1 billion).
“We cannot continue the business as usual, because it will not bring the desired results. This is why we are contemplating a partnership of this scale with Tottenham Hotspurs FC, to really help us transform the number of tourists,” SAT acting chief executive Themba Khumalo said in the statement. dad.
“Unfortunately, information regarding the partnership was leaked ahead of time. We received the Board’s conditional approval for the partnership on Tuesday, January 31.”
Khumalo added: “What remains in this process is consultation with our tourism industry stakeholders and national treasury, before finalizing anything.
The SAT defended the funding by pointing to a government-mandated goal of “reaching 21 million international tourist arrivals by 2030.”
Speaking to the media at a Press Conference on Thursday Khumalo told reporters: “This is not about football.”
“We are reaching the audience in the Premier League. We’re approaching it so we can convince them to travel to South Africa, spend pounds, euros, dollars, yen in our destination and bring dignity back to our people,” he said. speak.
Tottenham declined to comment on the sponsorship deal.
The ongoing power outage in South Africa is known locally as unloadingprompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to consider declaring a state of national disaster, similar to the one that occurred in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic, having a devastating impact on the country’s economy.
The escalating power outages are also deeply worrying for South Africa’s food security, driving up prices and putting even greater strain on strained household budgets.
