[imagesource:gencraft]

A three-year investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has revealed collusion between Lottery officials, former board members, lawyers and non-profit organisations.

The SIU informed Parliament this week that a ‘criminal syndicate’ was operating within the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), stealing money intended for charitable activities to purchase luxurious homes, farms, and cars.

According to the Asset Forfeiture Unit, there are still people within the NLC who continue to commit crimes and may refuse to assist or provide false information. This makes the NLC sound more like a gang than a commission.

The SIU had uncovered a “criminal syndicate” operating inside the NLC involving members of the board and executives that “worked with employees and outside entities and lawyers”, Mothibi said.

GroundUp reports that MPs sat silently as SIU head Andy Mothibi briefed them on the unit’s latest investigations into Lottery grant fraud. This fraud would see money meant for good causes go into buying an R6.3 million Rolls Royce for board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda. The wife of the former NLC’s chief operating officer only got a new Landrover.

“There is a complex web of criminality that we are unravelling … We found that some NPOs [non-profit organisations] are hijacked without the knowledge of their members. In other cases, members [of these NPOs] are involved.”

The SIU three-year-long investigation has revealed a web of collusion between lottery officials, former board members, lawyers and non-profit organisations, Mothibi said. MPs were surprised to discover that although 26 dockets relating to the NLC were under investigation, only one prosecutor had been assigned to liaise with the Hawks and SAPS on Lottery investigations.

The NPA team trying to crack this egg is headed up by Rodney de Kock, its head of prosecution services, who assured the surprised MPs that the NLC cases are a priority, but the team needed resources to unravel and successfully prosecute these cases. This should not surprise MPs as they were present when the National Prosecuting Authority was being hollowed out.

Obviously, parliament remembers it differently as the NPA appeared before the Trade and Industry portfolio committee after MPs insisted that it appear before them to explain the lack of prosecutions. The NPA has come under pressure to charge and prosecute those engaged in the looting. Even though investigations into certain grants by the Hawks and SAPS began in 2020, no one has yet been charged.

De Kock told MPs that while several of the cases under investigation were at a stage where the NPA could decide whether to prosecute, “the bulk” was still under investigation. Late last year, the SIU told GroundUp that the dodgy grants they were investigating exceeded R2 billion.

One of the problems the NPA faced was that, in many cases, key documents needed to prosecute some cases were deleted from the NLC computer system or had gone missing from Metrofile, a warehouse where copies of documents are archived and stored.

Mashudu Netshikwera, who heads up the SIU team investigating the NLC, said they had discovered a 2018 memo that was distributed to senior officials claiming that the State Security Agency had “instructed the NLC to remove proactive documents from the [NLC’s grants] system and from storage.” But the SIU had managed to retrieve some documents from the NLC Mimecast email system which is used to manage and archive email,” he said.

“At least we have secondary evidence because original documents were destroyed. We will tell the courts that the people who destroyed the documents are the perpetrators”.

To illustrate just how diabolical these perpetrators can be, the NPA is looking into Lottery money intended for an old age home being used to buy an estate in North West, which has since been turned into a boutique hotel by former NLC board member William Huma. Huma is also the sole director of Silverlite Trading, a company that owns five farms as well as the property where an upliftment project for Marikana families was built. All Lottery funded of course. Dia-f***ing-bolical.

No story about fleecing the vulnerable would be complete without a dodgy pastor, and the SIU is also investigating a ‘syndicate’ headed up by pastor Joyline Josamu who raked in over R9 million for a series of non-profits in which she and family members and friends were directors. Among the things she purchased with Lottery grant money were a R4.65-million house in a gated estate and two cars.

“The SIU continued to receive new allegations of fraud and corruption and the investigation may have to be extended to include a fourth phase.”

Sounds like the entire NLC needs to be fired and the building razed to the ground. Gift of the Givers can then disburse the money that hasn’t been stolen yet.

[source:groundup]