As Tottenham Hotspur find themselves in the middle of a scandal, SA Tourism haven’t covered themselves in glory trying to justify why they should spend such a huge amount on a single campaign.

During a damage control presser, acting CEO Themba Khumalo went on a tirade and accused some people within the organisation of leaking sensitive information and jeopardising the deal. The reality is that it will be difficult to quantify its return on investment.

I agree with SA Tourism that their budget is to market SA and not provide service delivery, but given the tough times, they could do with more aggressive internal marketing campaigns. A more robust inward looking tourism drive could do more for the country’s struggling tourism sector than the “Spursgate” idea.

The alleged link between the CFO and the agency helping to prepare the initial value proposition, is not helpful in the bigger scheme of things. They have a lot to explanations to do if they want to have the confidence of all the relevant stakeholders. But the general public will be the biggest and hardest constituency to convince, given the current state of affairs in the country and the monies involved here.

Kiekie Mboweni, Nkowankowa, Limpopo