Committee meeting on tourism was about grandstanding, not oversight

It is difficult to feel any sympathy for Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, because she is so haughty and arrogant in most public encounters.

Yet, we had to feel slightly sorry for her this week when she was mauled by the parliamentary portfolio committee on tourism over the controversial Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal. The occasion was a classic example of the parliamentary sharks gathering at the smell of blood in the water.

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Many of our useless MPs have rubber-stamped all sorts of expensive nonsense over the years, even against obvious public opposition. Yet, now, they had an opportunity to show they were the good guys; the guardians of the public purse.

So, committee chair Tandi Mahambehlala slated Sisulu for being late – even though the minister had offered a written apology and explanation ahead of the meeting – and then ruled that the Spurs deal was going “to end here and now”.

The jury is still out on whether she had the authority to do this – but she used the occasion to publicly burnish her own image (though she clearly did not understand the nuances of the deal, insisting that it did not do anything for SA football).

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This committee meeting was about grandstanding, not oversight.