City Press reports that employees at SA Tourism have accused the interim board of using the hotline and whistleblowing platforms created for employees to report wrongdoing and misconduct in the organisation as a witch-hunt tool to intimidate staff members.
But, in response to allegations that he had attempted and failed to solicit funds from SA Tourism for his world surfing league, interim board chairperson Tim Harrishe said that once a report had been "escalated to us, the board does not have the option to do nothing". He said: “We are proceeding with the investigation of the reported cases in line with our fiduciary responsibilities. When whistleblowers report incidents in good faith, the board’s obligation is to ensure that they are properly reviewed. At SA Tourism, the policy on escalation of such cases assigns this responsibility to various levels of the entity depending on the contents of the reported incident." Harris added that the board reviewed each case and resolved to investigate several that contained potentially credible allegations, including nepotism, mismanagement and corruption. In a letter addressed to all staff members, Harris advised that management had brought to the board's attention seven outstanding whistleblowing reports submitted through the hotline. Two additional reports had been copied to the government ethics hotline. He indicated: “These reports date as far back as May 2022. All the reports have been handed over to the board through the escalation process. One was already under investigation." In the letter, Harris said data was being sourced from various officials within SA Tourism who would have interacted with pertinent information during their work. But, according to employees, 12 people and some executive committee members were ambushed and had their laptops raided. To this, Harris responded: "SA Tourism Internal Audit communicated the initiation of the investigation and requested cooperation from employees. Data was then preserved on select IT equipment used as tools of trade to ensure that all necessary information is available to the investigators."
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Palesa Dlamini at City Press
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