Lotto money: lawyer’s lavish lifestyle
Bank statements show payments not related to intended centre.
Bank statements reveal EFT and debit card payments not related to the centre.
Bank accounts belonging to a hijacked non-profit organisation (NPO), into which millions of rands in lottery grants were paid, appear to have been used by lawyer and Lottopreneur Lesley Ramulifho to help fund a lavish lifestyle.
Leaked bank statements for two accounts belonging to Denzhe Primary Care, a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre, reveal that besides building and construction-related payments, there are also multiple EFT and debit card payments that do not appear to be related to the NPO. Denzhe was funded by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) to the tune of over R27.5 million.
Ramulifho and Liesl Moses, an employee at Ramulifho’s legal practice, who is also the mother of his child, are both signatories on the FNB and Nedbank accounts.
Denzhe’s FNB bank account, which had become dormant because of inactivity, reflected an opening balance of R68 in October 2016, according to the FNB bank statement.
On October 3, Ramulifho paid R100 into the account at FNB’s Olympus Plaza branch to reactivate it. Sixteen days later the NLC deposited R7.5 million, the first tranche of its grant to the NPO to build and run the rehab.
The following day, October 20, Ramulifho made two payments of R1 550 000 and R5 million for “site establishment”. He also made several payments, amounting to almost R275 000 to suppliers of building material between October 24 and 27.
The first payment to Ocean Basket from the NPO account was R264 240.34 on October 25, 2016 – referenced as “62 Ocean Basket Cam”. The second payment of R271 000 was made on November 23, 2016 and referenced as “OB Joining Fee”. The franchises Ramulifho purchased were at Carnival City casino and Carnival City Mall in Gauteng. Ramulifho claims this was a “loan” which has been repaid. But if it was repaid, it wasn’t into the same account.
Interspersed between payments to a variety of suppliers for building materials are cash withdrawals at ATMs and restaurant bills settled with Denzhe’s bank card.
By November 19, a month after the NLC’s first tranche of R7.5 million was paid, the balance in the account dropped to R4 375.56.
But within three days the second NLC tranche of R7.5 million landed in Denzhe’s account. Within days, amounts of R790 000, R130 000, R50 000 and R100 000 – all referred to as “refund” – were paid to unidentified recipients.
GroundUp has previously reported that the rehab is shoddily built, roofs leak, there are cracks in walls, and doors and windows do not fit properly. An existing lapa was converted into a sports centre by adding a corrugated iron roof and windows.
Payments totalling R80 000, marked “Sports centre” were made from the Nedbank account in April 2017. An independent quantity surveyor later found that the total value of work done was R4.8 million, leaving more than R20 million unaccounted for.
GroundUp earlier revealed how Denzhe and several non-profit companies linked to Ramulifho and some of his employees received at least R60 million in lottery funding for four different projects.
These were the Denzhe drug rehab centre, toilet facilities at rural schools in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, and a Limpopo-based project established “to provide infrastructure in order to advance sport, recreation and physical activity in communities across the country”.
An investigation by the NLC’s board found no proof of anything untoward with the Denzhe project. But in a letter to NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda, Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel raised concerns about the investigation. He said steps should be taken to recover the lottery funds and asked the NLC to pursue criminal charges. Patel said: “In view of the two forensic investigation reports from your investigators, and in light of the investigation outcome, it is evident that the … funding was not used for the intended purpose,” Patel said.
Ramulifho responds
In response to detailed e-mailed questions, Ramulifho said: “You are in no position to be asking anyone in this country or any of my associates any questions, you are a bitter, a liar and disgruntled ex-beneficiary of NLC.”
The NLC has claimed that because Raymond Joseph served on the board of The Big Issue South Africa, which previously received lottery funding, he was a beneficiary of these grants.
All Big Issue board members serve in a voluntary capacity. Joseph has never been involved in any application to the NLC.
Ramulifho’s lawyer, KR Ellliot of Elliot Attorneys, subsequently sent a letter demanding that the source from which the bank statements were obtained be disclosed.
Referring to an unsuccessful urgent application for articles about Ramulifho to be removed from the websites of GroundUp, The Citizen and Daily Dispatch, he claimed that any story about the bank statements was “inappropriate” because of this pending litigation. It was also not “in the public interest”. – GroundUp has published the article in partnership with The Citizen
Funding was not used for the intended purpose