Lottery bosses turned to Condition Safety Agency to research leaks

Lottery bosses turned to Condition Safety Agency to research leaks

Blog Article

Previous Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda asked the State Safety Agency (SSA) in December 2018 to research the leaking of paperwork that uncovered lottery corruption.
The NLC’s company secretary at time shown media experiences she said were determined by “stolen” facts within an affidavit to the SSA.
The SSA did investigate. It discovered the information was not a matter of condition protection and the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “sufficient motive” with the media to show it.
A fresh board and management has considering that taken about the NLC and To date have taken measures to finish corruption at the institution.
A Condition Stability Agency (SSA) investigation located which the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “offered sufficient motive” for exposure through the media.

The probe into supposed “data safety breaches and sabotage of NLC operations” was carried out 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 presently suspended NLC company secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the ask for, and
the security company’s “confidential” conclusions and recommendations.
Nevhutanda questioned the SSA to investigate the job of NLC personnel inside the alleged leaking of data, and Nene, in her affidavit recognized specific media and stories that she claimed involved these leaks.

From the letter outlining its findings, the SSA advised the NLC that though safeguarding point out info was “a legal critical directed at protecting the sovereignty and integrity from the state” this only applied to appropriately classified info.

Although it didn't say so instantly, the SSA conclusions implied the allegedly leaked data did not fall into this classification.

Noticeably, the SSA manufactured it very clear that the necessity to safeguard point out details “does not avert any person from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or criminal activity”.

The SSA investigation uncovered that the NLC data linked to the alleged breach was “delicate and privileged in mother nature, although not classified with regards to the prescripts on the Minimum amount Information and facts Stability Standards (MISS)”.

“The leakage of the relevant delicate Formal NLC details for the media doesn't pose a danger to nationwide security,” the SSA said, incorporating that the impression in the breaches was reputational.

The SSA report discovered “no proof of the factual and incriminating nature from any in the suspected NLC workforce that might be discovered from the information and info interrogated”.

It also stated that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities inside the NLC and at its beneficiaries does present enough motive to obtain this kind of exposed within the media”.

Conspiracy claims
In 2020, Nevhutanda told MPs in the course of a session of Parliament’s trade, market and Competitiveness portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” during which details “stolen” in the NLC was despatched for the US, exactly where he claimed it absolutely was getting bought to fund a smear campaign versus the NLC.

He was repeating related promises he had Earlier made in Parliament, which provided advert hominem assaults on GroundUp and this reporter but was mindful not to call possibly.

“I came below Within this August property very last calendar year and reported to honourable members that information about our beneficiaries is stolen and put in a single point out in the usa,” he advised MPs.

“We named within the State Stability Company to come back explore the make a difference simply because we've been receiving reviews that our information and facts is creating cash for media platforms and journalists,” he claimed. “There has been converse, obviously from one particular source, a person media, that spoke Substantially about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda stated (referring to GroundUp), but didn't notify MPs which the SSA investigation had been done Practically a calendar year earlier.

Proactive funding was at the guts of your looting with the lottery. It aspect-stepped the conventional grant process. The NLC could itself establish a project to fund and appoint a non-earnings organisation to oversee it.

Right after Nevhutanda to start with instructed Parliament in 2018 that he experienced questioned the SSA to investigate the supposed breach, the South African National Editors Forum issued a press release declaring that his remarks mirrored “an especially perilous Frame of mind where by the media is getting blamed for that NLC’s inherent issues”.

“In lieu of investigating why millions cannot be accounted for, the NLC has as an alternative attempted to Solid doubt around the integrity from the journalists involved and it has requested the SSA to research their sources.”

Proactive projects made secret
Stability flaws determined inside the NLC grant funding system during the SSA’s investigation, show up to are already utilized being an justification through the NLC to eliminate all proactive-funded tasks from its central grants process.

“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all pro-actively funding assignments was heightened to ‘top secret’ and tasks have been faraway from the grant funding procedure and maintained manually under the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Details Office environment, Government Manager Authorized in an effort to safeguard [the] data,” Nene claimed in her affidavit.

“There was many inside discussion, with plenty of forwards and backwards, about how to proceed to plug the alleged leaks”, a source, who was inside of a senior situation on the NLC at the time, instructed GroundUp. “In the end, the choice was taken to remove the many proactive tasks within the program and Restrict usage of A few folks”.

Some in that handful of folks were implicated in corruption.

Maselwa, who resigned through the NLC quite a few many years ago, has become implicated in corruption involving lottery cash. He gained R4.three-million from lottery money allocated to create a library and museum intricate in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural Audio and Arts Expo) which he utilised to create a home within an upmarket gated progress in Pretoria. The residence is one of several paid out for with lottery funds which were frozen after the Asset Forfeiture Device acquired a preservation get in December 2022.

The politically-linked Nevhutanda, who was appointed given that the NLC board chairperson by former President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was near higher-ups during the ANC leadership, former NLC former Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-Main functioning officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated within the corruption which overcome the NLC on their own check out.

Also implicated are former board members William Huma, who resigned right after he was confronted with evidence of how he had profited from corrupt lottery grants, and Muthuhadini Madzivhandila, that has due to the fact died.

Any time a new administration, such as the overall board and government, took above on the NLC in late 2022 and early 2023, they identified a “chaotic mess” within the documentation relating to proactive funding, much of which was paper-dependent. Essential documents ended up missing. Documents held for safekeeping by document storage firm Metrofile were signed out and never ever returned.

The NLC was in a position to Get well copies of some ผล หวย ลาว paperwork from its Mimecast e-mail archiving system and the laptops of their assistants and support staff members.

News stories
In his 1 December 2018 letter, resolved to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has noted with grave problem probable details stability breaches and also the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of confidential data attained on account of carrying out official functions inside the Commission by NLC staff. The pursuits are intended to undermine the integrity in the Fee whilst disrupting the productive functions [on the NLC] and producing insurmountable reputational harm on the Fee given that the custodian of personal info entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”

His request to the SSA to research was supported in an affidavit by suspended NLC firm secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.

Nene is at this time struggling with a disciplinary inquiry after she was unsuccessful in lawful motion to set aside findings of irregular expenditure on her check out.

The goal of her affidavit, Nene explained, was “to document the occasions which transpired concerning facts safety breaches at the Nationwide Lotteries Fee”.

She shown numerous information reports which she claimed have been the results of those “breaches” (see at the conclusion of this informative article).

Nene claimed that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that certainly one of its personnel, Sello Qhino, experienced “delivered her classified NLC Info and persistently encouraged her to supply 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 dismissed, was subsequently fired.

Referring to an 18 November 2018 article during the Day-to-day Dispatch about the misappropriation of Lottery money, Nene claimed that the NLC determined after which suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an staff inside the NLC’s East London Business, who was the partner as well as the mother of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s 3 little ones.

Rungqu and Makatse believe that Rungqu was punished mainly because Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and charged internally, With all the NLC paying out R470,000 on legal professionals to characterize it, but was located not responsible and allowed to return to work.

“The prevalent Consider these article content is that [they entail] labeled information regarding proactive funding jobs,” Nene claimed in her affidavit.

When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out from the spouse and children house to take the heat off her and his young children. Facing homelessness, he moved into an Business office in an empty manufacturing facility belonging to a buddy.

The two Makatse and Qhino are participating in an NLC reparation procedure meant to recognise the damage lots of people experienced at the fingers in the NLC. Apologies and, in some cases, economical compensation are envisioned.

“Some folks were being genuinely afflicted really negatively by this … This is really painful,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz advised the Each day Maverick last yr.

“I satisfied a handful of these individuals. It was just so coronary heart-wrenching that their full life are actually turned the other way up,” claimed Scholtz.

Between People she satisfied had been Qhino and Makatse.

Safe System essential for whistleblowers
The SSA discovered the absence at some time of a suitable channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to show on the media.

“Failure to possess a devoted anti-corruption channel will bring about staff presenting such situations beyond the NLC,” the SSA said in its findings.

“Presented the magnitude of corruption in point out establishments, it continues to be essential that it ensures that the NLC complies with all safety prescripts and that its target is on guaranteeing that illegal and irregular conduct is adequately mitigated against and by ensuring an adequate channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward perform without the need of remaining intimidated.”

It encouraged the NLC establish a “Harmless channel” for employees to provide info on any “untoward activity” that could not avoid or discourage employees from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers coverage, according to the Secured Disclosures Act 25 of 2000, can be a need.”

Media reviews Nene stated
A ten December 2017 report within the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Overall health and Conditioning Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has labored intently with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and operator of the Limpopo Mirror, to show NLC corruption. “The article experienced features of data not readily available in the general public domain, thus boosting worry on inner Info stability breaches. The allegations from the media have been independently investigated,” Nene stated. “However, staff members answerable for divulging classified data have however being identified”;
A 28 January 2018 report posted from the Dally Dispatch “citing quite a few allegations within the Limpopo Mirror article printed on 10 December 2017 plus a new allegation regarding a previous personnel with the title of Mzukisi Makatse. He was charged and summarily dismissed for your threat caused to the organisation.”
A sixteen November 2018 report while in the Lowvelder with regards to the misappropriation of NLC money involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has reported how, Despite getting R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab hasn't been accomplished. “The Lowvelder posting contained labeled information with regard to NLC policy, elevating even further issues of inner information and facts security breaches,” Nene mentioned in her affidavit. “The prima facie evidence regarding these allegations did not warrant an impartial Investigation, even so [it] highlighted the heightened information and facts stability threats throughout the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose a few dodgy R27.5-million grant to Denzhe Principal Care, a hijacked NPO. Nene said GroundUp experienced confirmed in its story that it absolutely was based upon leaked NLC documents. This was Regardless of the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Marketing of Access to Information and facts) request for details with regard to the task, she stated