By OBAKENG MAJE

30 May 2026 – The Democratic Alliance (DA) is outraged by the shocking collapse in governance, financial oversight and operational performance at the North West Parks and Tourism Board (NWPTB). This was revealed during the entity’s fourth quarter performance briefing to the Portfolio Committee on the Department Economic Development, Environment, Conservation, and Tourism (DEDECT).

DA spokesperson on DEDECT in North West, Jóhni Steenkamp said the report confirms what residents, tourism stakeholders, and visitors across the province have been saying for months. Steenkamp said the public is being forced to pay dramatically more for a tourism product that is visibly deteriorating.

“What is even more alarming is that this comes amid the recent conviction of the NWPTB Chief Financial Officer on corruption-related charges and revelations made in committee that the entity allegedly discovered an undisclosed bank account containing approximately R6.3 million only two weeks ago — an account officials claim they were previously unaware of.

“This revelation raises extremely serious questions about financial controls, governance oversight, internal audit systems, asset and cash management. Furthermore, the biggest question of all: are there any additional undisclosed financial irregularities within the entity that may still surface?” she said.  

Steenkamp further said an institution cannot just “discover” millions of rand in a bank account it claims to have been unaware of. She added that the same Board that aggressively imposed massive tariff increases on struggling residents and tourism operators is now exposed as an institution riddled with weak oversight, operational collapse and deeply concerning governance failures.

“The fourth quarter report paints a devastating picture. The NWPTB achieved only 50% of its quarter 4 targets, conservation performance collapsed to 40%, the entity completely failed its conservation effectiveness targets and commercialisation initiatives achieved absolutely nothing,” said Steenkamp.

She said only 5% of concession contracts were reviewed. Steenkamp said tourism infrastructure continues to deteriorate.

“Hotel schools are declining because of failures in maintenance. Despite repeatedly blaming aging infrastructure for poor performance, NWPTB spent only 38% of its capital infrastructure budget.

“At the same time, the Board overspent heavily on administration, legal costs, and goods and services while reserve infrastructure and conservation standards deteriorated further. The DA warned that these outrageous fee increases were unjustifiable,” she said.

Steenkamp said the public was told that higher tariffs were necessary for sustainability, infrastructure maintenance and conservation support. She said yet the board’s own report proves the opposite.

“Reserves are deteriorating, tourism confidence is becoming unstable, conservation standards are failing, infrastructure backlogs continue to grow and governance failures remain unresolved.

“Most alarming is that NWPTB exceeded its revenue targets and collected substantially more money from the public, yet conditions within reserves and tourism facilities continue worsening,” said Steenkamp.

She said in simple terms the public paid more, but got less. Steenkamp said this is not “operational recovery”.

“This is an entity consuming public funds, while failing to deliver meaningful outcomes. The DA will urgently push for intensified oversight into the mysterious, undisclosed bank account and its origin, all concession agreements, leases and the utilisation of revenue generated through tariff increases and infrastructure and maintenance expenditures.

“We will also investigate conservation management failures, consequence management relating to governance failures and the systemic breakdowns that allowed a now-convicted official to occupy one of the most critical financial positions within the entity,” she said.

Steenkamp said the NWPTB cannot continue demanding premium prices from the public, while delivering collapsing infrastructure, failing conservation standards, weak governance, and financial uncertainty. She said the people of North West deserve protected reserves that function, tourism destinations that attract visitors and public entities that serve the public interest — not another ANC-run institution drowning in scandal, excuses, and decline.

Meanwhile, the North West Department Economic Development, Environment, Conservation, and Tourism (DEDECT) spokesperson, Jerry Matebesi failed to respond to The Guardian Newspaper media inquiry..

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