CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), Mmatšatši Ramawela, on Wednesday 27 June, received a notice of termination of employment.

The notice was sent unsigned by two of the board members of the TBCSA, notifying Ramawela that her tenure as CEO of the Council was terminated. Tourism Update spoke to Ramawela, who said that she had approached the Board Chairman, Tito Mboweni, for clarification. “I cannot say much at this stage,” said Ramawela, “as this may be subject to litigation. But I have asked the Chairman for clarity”.

There have been murmurings of unease within the board over the past months, with some allegations levelled against Ramawela. In an interview conducted with the CEO at the Travel Indaba held in Durban in May this year, Tourism Update questioned the CEO on the alleged ructions within the leadership of the TBCSA. She commented that the TBCSA had its challenges last year, “but it’s at Board level and we left it to the Board to address it. I’m a member of the Board, and it’s within that structure; I’m involved in it and I think we’ll find a way around it. Hopefully this will be resolved, and we can really get going with the work. We, as a team, have been saying ‘let’s focus on the work at hand; we’re not oblivious to what’s going on; somebody’s got to hold the fort and keep the work going and that’s why we are here: to support the members and respond to the best of our ability’.”

Tourism Update approached a number of other sources linked to the TBCSA for further information, but was consistently referred to Mboweni for comment. The Chairman had not responded to the queries at the time of publishing.