Lottery swindle: the story so far
Luxury homes in gated security estates; a mansion with two house-size “guest cottages” in a rural village; a home in an exclusive golf estate; and a R27 million house on its own private two-hectare suburban property.
All but one of these are the homes of executive members of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), or former members of its board. The other belongs to an attorney who controls several non-profit companies that have received millions in Lottery grants.
The money to pay for all these houses, in part or in full, was diverted from Lottery grants intended for good causes, such as old age homes, drug rehabilitation centres and sports facilities.
GroundUp’s investigation into the Lottery since 2018, has revealed that despite hundreds of millions of rands being granted by the NLC in 2017 and 2018 to build six old age homes and four drug rehabilitation centres, most of them in far-flung rural areas, none are operational.
Complex networks of corruption, hijacked and dormant companies, or shelf companies set up for this purpose, have been used to launder looted Lottery money.
Homes paid for with Lottery money include:
A house on a golf estate next to Hartebeespoort Dam owned by a trust in which NLC commissioner Thabang Mampane and her family are beneficiaries. It was paid for from a multimillion-rand grant meant to rebuild a Limpopo school destroyed by protesters.
The Pretoria mansion of former Lottery board chair Alfred Nevhutana is subject to a preservation order by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
A luxury house with two guest “cottages” in the Marapyane in Mpumalanga belongs to NLC chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba. The house is less than a kilometre from a Lottery-funded old age home that is unfinished years later. Leaked bank statements from Upbrand Properties, linked to Letwaba, revealed how Lottery money helped fund work, including a roof deck, security systems and expensive trees.
A luxury home in North West belonging to a company owned by former NLC board member William Huma. It was partly paid for by a grant to a non-profit company to build the old age home in Marapyane. Huma also used part of a R13 million grant meant for women in Marikana, to build a state-of-the-art chicken farm.
At least R5 million of a R28.5 million grant to Denzhe Primary Care, a hijacked non-profit company, to build a drug rehabilitation centre in Pretoria, was used by lawyer Lesley Ramulifho to buy a luxury Pretoria “country estate” home.