Former Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda requested the Point out Stability Company (SSA) in December 2018 to investigate the leaking of documents that exposed lottery corruption.
The NLC’s firm secretary at enough time stated media reports she said were determined by “stolen” facts in an affidavit for the SSA.
The SSA did look into. It observed the knowledge wasn't a subject of state stability and that the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “sufficient motive” for your media to reveal it.
A fresh board and administration has considering that taken over the NLC and To this point have taken steps to finish corruption in the institution.
A Condition Stability Company (SSA) investigation found that the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “offered sufficient motive” for exposure through the media.

The probe into intended “data protection breaches and sabotage of NLC operations” was undertaken after then-NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda wrote to the SSA in December 2018 requesting it to analyze.

Here is

Nevhutanda’s letter,
an affidavit by at present suspended NLC organization secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the ask for, and
the security company’s “confidential” conclusions and suggestions.
Nevhutanda asked the SSA to research the function of NLC team while in the alleged leaking of information, and Nene, in her affidavit recognized specific media and studies that she claimed associated these leaks.

Within the letter outlining its results, the SSA instructed the NLC that while defending condition facts was “a lawful imperative aimed at defending the sovereignty and integrity in the state” this only applied to correctly categorised details.

Even though it did not say so specifically, the SSA findings implied which the allegedly leaked facts did not drop into this class.

Significantly, the SSA created it crystal clear that the necessity to secure point out details “would not avoid any specific from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or illegal activity”.

The SSA investigation observed that the NLC information and facts associated with the alleged breach was “delicate and privileged in nature, but not labeled with regards to the prescripts of your Bare minimum Data Security Standards (Miss out on)”.

“The leakage in the relevant sensitive Formal NLC information and facts for the media isn't going to pose a danger to countrywide stability,” the SSA reported, incorporating the effect from the breaches was reputational.

The SSA report found “no proof of a factual and incriminating character towards any of your suspected NLC personnel that might be discovered from the information and knowledge interrogated”.

In addition, it said that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities throughout the NLC and at its beneficiaries does offer sufficient motive to acquire such exposed in the media”.

Conspiracy claims
In 2020, Nevhutanda advised MPs during a session of Parliament’s trade, business and Competitiveness portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” through which data “stolen” through the NLC was sent into the US, wherever he claimed it had been being bought to fund a smear campaign versus the NLC.

He was repeating equivalent promises he had Earlier produced in Parliament, which involved ad hominem attacks on GroundUp which reporter but was very careful not to name either.

“I came below Within this August property very last calendar year and reported to honourable members that details about our beneficiaries has become stolen and place in one state in America,” he told MPs.

“We referred to as within the State Stability Agency to return take a look at the matter simply because we are having stories that our details is generating cash for media platforms and journalists,” he explained. “There's been discuss, naturally from a person supply, a single media, that spoke A great deal about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda mentioned (referring to GroundUp), but did not convey to MPs the SSA investigation were finished almost a yr previously.

Proactive funding was at the guts of your looting on the lottery. It facet-stepped the normal grant course of action. The NLC could by itself establish a project to fund and appoint a non-revenue organisation to oversee it.

Right after Nevhutanda very first told Parliament in 2018 that he experienced requested the SSA to investigate the meant breach, the South African Nationwide Editors Forum issued a statement indicating that his remarks reflected “an extremely risky Perspective exactly where the media is remaining blamed for that NLC’s inherent problems”.

“In lieu of investigating why millions can't be accounted for, the NLC has as a substitute made an effort to Forged question on the integrity from the journalists involved and has questioned the SSA to analyze their sources.”

Proactive initiatives created mystery
Safety flaws discovered while in the NLC grant funding procedure throughout the SSA’s investigation, seem to are already applied being an excuse from the NLC to remove all proactive-funded projects from its central grants system.

“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all Professional-actively funding assignments was heightened to ‘key’ and tasks were faraway from the grant funding technique and preserved manually under the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Details Business, Executive Supervisor Lawful so that you can safeguard [the] data,” Nene mentioned in her affidavit.

“There was many inner discussion, with numerous forwards and backwards, about what to do to plug the alleged leaks”, a source, who was in a senior position for the NLC at the time, told GroundUp. “Ultimately, the choice was taken to get rid of every one of the proactive assignments in the method and Restrict entry to A few folks”.

Some in that handful of folks ended up implicated in corruption.

Maselwa, who resigned through the NLC numerous years in the past, continues to be implicated in corruption involving lottery resources. He gained R4.three-million from lottery funds allocated to create a library and museum elaborate in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural Songs and Arts Expo) which he used to create a home in an upmarket gated improvement in Pretoria. The home is among quite a few paid out for with lottery cash which were frozen after the Asset Forfeiture Device obtained a preservation order in December 2022.

The politically-connected Nevhutanda, who was appointed as being the NLC board chairperson by previous President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was near to significant-ups inside the ANC leadership, previous NLC former Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-Main functioning officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated while in the corruption which confused the NLC on their look at.

Also implicated are previous board associates William Huma, who resigned after he was confronted with evidence of how he had profited from corrupt lottery grants, and Muthuhadini Madzivhandila, who may have considering the fact that died.

Whenever a new administration, including the total board and government, took above with the NLC in late 2022 and early 2023, they uncovered a “chaotic mess” inside the documentation referring to proactive funding, A lot of which was paper-based. Vital paperwork were missing. Data files held for safekeeping by document storage enterprise Metrofile had been signed out and hardly ever returned.

The NLC was in the position to recover copies of some ผล สลากกินแบ่ง paperwork from its Mimecast e-mail archiving method and the laptops of their assistants and assistance team.

News experiences
In his 1 December 2018 letter, dealt with to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has mentioned with grave worry feasible facts security breaches along with the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of private information acquired due to accomplishing Formal capabilities in the Commission by NLC workers. The pursuits are intended to undermine the integrity in the Commission whilst disrupting the efficient functions [of your NLC] and producing insurmountable reputational damage for the Commission given that the custodian of non-public info entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”

His ask for to the SSA to investigate was supported in an affidavit by suspended NLC business secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.

Nene is now going through a disciplinary inquiry after she was unsuccessful in legal action to put aside findings of irregular expenditure on her enjoy.

The objective of her affidavit, Nene reported, was “to file the events which transpired associated with details stability breaches with the National Lotteries Fee”.

She outlined many news stories which she claimed had been the effects of these “breaches” (see at the end of this short article).

Nene explained that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that one of its personnel, Sello Qhino, experienced “furnished her categorised NLC Info and persistently encouraged her to provide the information to GroundUp”.

Qhino, who blew the whistle on a series of dodgy lottery-funded projects in Kuruman following attempts to lift The difficulty internally ended up overlooked, was subsequently fired.

Referring to an 18 November 2018 post in the Day by day Dispatch with regard to the misappropriation of Lottery cash, Nene stated which the NLC recognized and then suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an personnel within the NLC’s East London Business, who was the associate and the mother of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s 3 small children.

Rungqu and Makatse think Rungqu was punished mainly because Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and billed internally, with the NLC paying R470,000 on attorneys to depict it, but was observed not responsible and allowed to return to work.

“The typical factor in these posts is the fact that [they involve] categorised information and facts regarding proactive funding assignments,” Nene stated in her affidavit.

When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out of the spouse and children property to take the heat off her and his children. Experiencing homelessness, he moved into an Place of work within an vacant factory belonging to a colleague.

Both Makatse and Qhino are taking part in an NLC reparation process intended to recognise the damage lots of people suffered on the fingers with the NLC. Apologies and, in some cases, monetary compensation are expected.

“Some folks had been actually impacted really negatively by this … This is absolutely unpleasant,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz informed the Daily Maverick past calendar year.

“I satisfied a number of these individuals. It absolutely was just so heart-wrenching that their full lives have been turned the wrong way up,” stated Scholtz.

Between Individuals she fulfilled were Qhino and Makatse.

Safe and sound System necessary for whistleblowers
The SSA observed the absence at the time of a proper channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to turn on the media.

“Failure to possess a committed anti-corruption channel will bring about employees presenting this sort of situations outside of the NLC,” the SSA mentioned in its results.

“Provided the magnitude of corruption in state establishments, it continues to be important that it makes sure that the NLC complies with all security prescripts Which its emphasis is on making certain that unlawful and irregular carry out is sufficiently mitigated from and by making certain an adequate channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward carry out with out remaining intimidated.”

It advised which the NLC establish a “Safe and sound channel” for workers to supply information on any “untoward exercise” that would not avoid or discourage staff members from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers plan, according to the Safeguarded Disclosures Act 25 of 2000, can be a prerequisite.”

Media experiences Nene mentioned
A ten December 2017 report from the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Health and fitness and Fitness Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has labored carefully with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and owner of the Limpopo Mirror, to show NLC corruption. “The report experienced components of information not available in the public domain, thus increasing problem on inner Info stability breaches. The allegations from the media have been independently investigated,” Nene mentioned. “Nevertheless, workforce to blame for divulging categorized information and facts have still to become determined”;
A 28 January 2018 article revealed because of the Dally Dispatch “citing many allegations through the Limpopo Mirror posting published on ten December 2017 along with a new allegation referring to a former employee through the name of Mzukisi Makatse. He was charged and summarily dismissed for your menace induced on the organisation.”
A 16 November 2018 report from the Lowvelder regarding the misappropriation of NLC money involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has documented how, in spite of acquiring R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab has not been finished. “The Lowvelder write-up contained classified info when it comes to NLC coverage, raising even more concerns of inner information and facts safety breaches,” Nene said in her affidavit. “The prima facie evidence regarding these allegations didn't warrant an unbiased Investigation, even so [it] highlighted the heightened information and facts security hazards in the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose a couple of dodgy R27.five-million grant to Denzhe Key Treatment, a hijacked NPO. Nene explained GroundUp had confirmed in its Tale that it had been based upon leaked NLC paperwork. This was despite the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Promotion of Usage of Information) ask for for aspects concerning the venture, she said