Appointment of new Lotto board chair delayed

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel has appointed his official representative on the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board as acting chair, after the scandal-ridden former chair’s tenure ended on Monday.

The appointment of Zandile Brown as acting board chair was conveyed to NLC staff in a memo.

A new board chair was due to be appointed on Tuesday, the day after Alfred Nevutanda’s term ended. The minister had appointed an independent committee headed by Judge Dennis Davis that shortlisted three names.

But the process was derailed after a legal opinion by parliament’s legal office found that the shortlisting process was the role of the trade and industry parliamentary portfolio committee, and not the minister.

Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dean Macpherson, objected to Brown’s appointment during an ill-tempered virtual meeting yesterday. He said she served on the NLC’s board during a time when it has been engulfed by allegations of corruption, provoking an angry response from ANC MPs.

“The committee should express its disappointment at the appointment of someone with serious question marks over their head,” Macpherson said.

Earlier this year, the DA laid a criminal complaint against the NLC board which, they alleged, had acted “unlawfully” by not releasing the list of its beneficiaries for the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 financial years, as well as their Covid-19 Relief Fund beneficiaries. This complaint is currently under investigation, according to Police Minister Bheki Cele

ANC MP Tozama Mantashe dismissed Macpherson’s complaint about Brown.

The committee that Patel originally appointed to do the shortlisting named former public protector Thuli Madonsela, who has since withdrawn, struggle stalwart and cleric Reverend Frank Chikane, and human rights lawyer, academic, and theologian Barney Pityana as the three candidates. They were drawn from a long list of 41 nominees.

The process has already dragged on for months – and with parliament going into recess today a new shortlisting process will only be completed in March at the earliest, according to a timetable presented to MPs.

Parliament closes today, with members heading home to do constituency work, before going on annual leave from 14 December until 8 January. This will be followed by further constituency work until 25 January.

Only once MPs return to parliament on 26 Januar,y will the new process begin.