Mahaz News
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The South African authorities’s tourism board has conditionally authorized plans to sponsor English Premier League membership Tottenham Hotspur amid an power disaster, South African Tourism (SAT) introduced in a assertion on Thursday.

The controversial sponsorship deal, which is but to be finalized, is reported to be round $58 million (R1 billion).

“We cannot carry on with business as usual, because it will not yield the desired results. This is why we are contemplating a partnership of this scale with Tottenham Hotspurs FC, to really help us shift the dial in our tourist arrivals,” SAT’s performing chief government officer Themba Khumalo mentioned within the assertion.

“It is unfortunate that the information regarding the partnership was leaked ahead of time. We obtained conditional Board approval for the partnership on Tuesday, 31 January.”

“What is now left in the process is to consult our tourism sector stakeholders and national treasury, prior to finalizing anything,” Khumalo added.

SAT has defended the sponsorship by pointing to the government-mandated purpose “to achieve 21 million international tourist arrivals by 2030.”

Addressing the media at a press convention on Thursday Khumalo instructed reporters: “This is not about football.”

“We are accessing the audience in the British Premier League. We are accessing it so that we can persuade them to travel to South Africa, spend pounds, euros, dollars, yen in our destination, and bring dignity back to our people,” he mentioned.

Tottenham has declined to touch upon the sponsorship deal.

South Africa’s ongoing energy blackouts recognized domestically as loadshedding, have resulted in President Cyril Ramaphosa contemplating declaring a nationwide catastrophe, much like one in 2020 on the top of the Covid pandemic, which had a devastating impact on the nation’s economic system.

The escalation of energy outages can also be deeply worrying for South Africa’s meals safety, driving up costs, and inserting a fair better pressure on stretched family budgets.