The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a scathing attack on the outgoing Board of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), accusing it of gross incompetence, corruption, and directly contributing to the deterioration of the province’s key tourism attractions.
With the board’s term set to lapse, the opposition party is demanding that the provincial government install an entirely new interim board by Monday, asserting that not a single current member should be retained due to a catastrophic failure in their mandate.
The DA’s allegations paint a picture of an agency in crisis. Trudie Grove-Morgan, the DA’s spokesperson on Tourism, accused the board of “breaking down the MTPA even more” through severe mismanagement and nepotism. “For the past four years, they haven’t done anything to improve the MTPA,” Grove-Morgan stated. “They [were] employing people that were not suitable for positions.”
These criticisms are echoed by key industry stakeholders. The Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism confirmed it has repeatedly accused the agency of failing to uplift the provincial tourism sector. A representative highlighted a fundamental flaw in the board’s composition, noting a critical lack of expertise.
“Our biggest concern has been the capacity of the board to deal with the critical issues that relate to tourism,” the chamber stated. “When you look at the composition of the board, you realize that none of them had a background on either biodiversity or tourism.”
The chamber concluded that the board had “dismally failed the province,” accusing it of sabotaging growth and creating “unnecessary barriers to tourism.”
In a firm ultimatum, the DA insisted that the entire board must be replaced without exception. Sithole argued that any capable member would have halted the alleged corruption early on. Employing a local idiom, she claimed, “They were all… just saying yes and going with the flow. So we don’t want a board like that in place.”
The party has vowed to fiercely oppose the reinstatement of any outgoing member.
Amid the fierce allegations, both the board chairperson, Victor Mashaba, and the MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Jester Sidel, have declined immediate comment. They indicated they would only respond publicly once the current board’s term of office has officially lapsed.
The provincial government now faces mounting pressure to address the crisis at the agency responsible for managing Mpumalanga’s prized tourism destinations, including the world-renowned Panorama Route.
