Tycoons Mark, Brett Levy face questions over minister visits

South African Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has acknowledged visiting the Johannesburg head office of Blu Label Unlimited Group, the company run by tycoons Mark and Brett Levy, several times, adding to scrutiny of the group’s sale of its Ticketpro unit to a consortium with links to the minister and his party.

McKenzie, who leads the Patriotic Alliance and serves as minister of sport, arts and culture, strongly denied playing any part in the Ticketpro deal or in the ticketing contracts the company holds. He said the visits to Blu Label’s offices in Sandton reflected a long friendship with the Levy brothers. “Ministers are allowed to have friends,” his spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said McKenzie first met the brothers around 2007, years before he entered government, when Blu Label invited him to give a motivational talk. People familiar with the visits have said they took place in 2025 and 2026, including while the sale was being finalized.

Bakang Lethoko, McKenzie’s former chief of staff and now Ticketpro’s chief executive, went with him to Blu Label on at least one occasion, the spokesperson said, adding that this was unsurprising given her role at Ticketpro.

An arm’s-length sale, Blu Label says

Blu Label sold Ticketpro in May to a buyer it describes as a women-owned broad-based black economic empowerment consortium, which made an unsolicited bid. The company has called the transaction an “arm’s-length disposal” and has declined to name the buyer or disclose the price, citing confidentiality terms in the sale agreement. Its annual financial statements show a net cash outflow of R35 million ($2.1 million) linked to the disposal.

Asked whether the minister’s visits could create the impression that the sale was not at arm’s length, Blu Label said: “The company has answered all reasonable commercial questions and has nothing further to add.”

Ticketpro is the exclusive ticketing vendor for Cricket South Africa and the South African Football Association, both of which fall under McKenzie’s oversight. It already sells tickets for the national cricket team’s home series and appears set to handle ticketing for the 2027 Men’s Cricket World Cup, which South Africa will co-host with Zimbabwe and Namibia. Neither Cricket South Africa nor the tournament’s local organizing committee has confirmed that appointment.

The new owners

Lethoko served as McKenzie’s chief of staff from August to November 2024 and later chaired his department’s steering committee for a bid to bring a Formula One race to South Africa. She became Ticketpro’s chief executive in June. She has said her government role ended well before she joined the company and that it should not cast doubt on her appointment.

A holding company called Ticketpro Group was registered in August with Astrid Harrison, Omphemetse Mokgosi and Zanele Dube as directors and shareholders. Harrison has described herself as a Patriotic Alliance member, and McKenzie appointed Mokgosi to the boards of the National Film and Video Foundation and the National Arts Council, both of which report to his department.

McKenzie’s office has said he played no role in Lethoko’s appointment, does not make procurement decisions and has had no conflict of interest flagged for review. The Patriotic Alliance has said it had no part in her appointment or in the new owners’ business. Ticketpro Group has said it is a private company with processes for managing conflicts of interest, and Blu Label has said it knew nothing of the buyers’ political affiliations.

The Democratic Alliance, a partner in South Africa’s governing coalition, has said the transaction raises further questions about the overlap between people linked to the Patriotic Alliance and the sectors McKenzie oversees.

Refocusing Blu Label

The Levys founded Blu Label in 2001 and run it as joint chief executives. The Johannesburg-listed group is one of South Africa’s largest distributors of prepaid airtime and electricity and owns 49.53% of mobile operator Cell C. It sold Ticketpro as part of a push to focus on its core businesses.

Blu Label posted a net loss of R4.88 billion ($294 million) for the year to May 31 after restructuring its investment in Cell C. The brothers recently bought R75.5 million ($4.6 million) of the company’s shares, and its energy unit has begun building a R360 million ($21.7 million) solar plant to supply power to the city of Ekurhuleni.