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The DA will today write to finance minister Enoch Godongwana to request that the R1 billion that is set to be wasted on a sponsorship for Tottenham Hotspur be immediately reallocated to buy diesel for Eskom to lower loadshedding.

National Treasury has repeatedly claimed that there is no additional money for diesel. But the fact that the ANC government has R1 billion to waste on a foreign soccer sponsorship - as confirmed by the acting CEO of the SA Tourism Board - belies this claim.

During a press briefing today, SA Tourism's CEO Themba Khumalo said that "there is no signed contract" but that there is definitely intent to sign the contract after it has gone through government procedures. The money, therefore, must immediately be relocated and used to alleviate loadshedding, before it is being wasted.

Furthermore, Treasury, as the custodian of the national purse, is now obliged to exercise its powers in terms of the Public Finance Management Act and relevant Treasury regulations on public expenditure, to refuse authorization of the deal between SA Tourism and Tottenham Hotspur.

No spin and pontification can justify R1 billion being spent on such a deal in a country with a 32.9% unemployment rate, a crippling energy crisis and thousands of South Africans going to bed hungry every night.

Issued by Dr Dion George MP - DA Shadow Minister of Finance