In 2015, an amendment was made to the Lotteries Act that allowed the Minister of Trade and Industry, the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), or its board to identify projects to be funded without receiving applications.

This is commonly called ‘proactive funding’, and the problem with it lies in the fact that funding can be allocated to projects without the usual checks and balances that would root out corruption or mismanagement of funds.

Needless to say, the result was corruption and mismanagement of funds.

In November 2019, the NLC failed to publish the details of organisations that it had funded in its 2019 annual report – a deviation from previous years where this information was made public. This decision was made following a series of media reports exposing corruption and incompetence in NLC-funded projects, many of which could be traced back to Phillemon Letwaba, the NLC’s Chief Operating Officer (COO).

It turns out that Letwaba had good reason not to release the names of NLC funded projects. GroundUp has the latest:

The National Lotteries Commission has given more than R11 million to a non-profit organisation (NPO) called I Am Made for God’s Glory, which has in turn paid R2 million to a private company of which the sole director is the cousin of the chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission.

According to leaked bank statements, R2 million was paid to Upbrand Properties by I Am Made For God’s Glory (IAM4GG), which received a R11,375,000 grant from the Lottery to develop an “integrated sports facility” in Limpopo.

The sole director of Upbrand, Kenneth Tomoletso Sithole, is the first cousin of Phillemon Letwaba.

And it’s not the first time that Letwaba has sent money Sithole’s way.

GroundUp has previously revealed how Upbrand received a R15-million contract to build a rehabilitation centre near Pretoria at a time when Letwaba’s brother, Johannes “Joe” Letwaba, was a director of the company. Johannes Letwaba subsequently resigned, leaving Keneilwe Constance Maboa, the wife of Karabo Sithole, another first cousin of the Letwaba brothers, as the company’s sole director. When Maboa resigned 17 months later, Kenneth Sithole was appointed as Upbrand’s sole director.

It’s a family affair.

GroundUp uncovered an IAM4GG bank account opened at Nedbank on January 10, 2017, that was mostly dormant until the NLC paid R9,1 million into it on April 26, 2018.

A second tranche of around R2,27 million was paid into the account on July 6, 2018.

In other words, money passed from the National Lotteries Commission, of which Letwaba is COO, through IAM4GG, of which Letwaba’s cousin Karabo Sithole is secretary, to Upbrand, of which Kenneth Sithole, cousin of both Karabo Sithole and of Letwaba, is sole director. And the chairman of IAM4GG is Ramulifho, who has already received at least R60 million in Lottery funds, as GroundUp has previously revealed.

The plan, according to the application that was put forth for funding, was to build sport and recreation centres across the country. The project was aimed at “sports transformation” in disadvantaged communities.

But only five payments in the leaked IAM4GG bank statements appear to be directly connected to the sports facility: R500,000 on 7 May 2018, for “construction sports stadium” and a further four payments for “sports centre” that totalled R22,500. The payments were made on 17, 19 and 20 July 2018. If there were any further payments related to the sports facility, they are not recorded as such on the bank statements.

To follow more of that money trail, go here.

When approached for comment the NLC opted to stay silent.

Meanwhile, Phillemon Letwaba is suing journalist Raymond Joseph, Nathan Geffen (the editor of GroundUp), and Community Media Trust (the owner of GroundUp) for defamation.

If you’s like to help fund their defence, go to Raymond Joseph’s article and scroll to the bottom for payment options.

[source:groundup]