Lottery bosses turned to Point out Protection Company to analyze leaks
Lottery bosses turned to Point out Protection Company to analyze leaks
Blog Article
Previous Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda questioned the State Stability Agency (SSA) in December 2018 to analyze the leaking of documents that exposed lottery corruption.
The NLC’s company secretary at enough time detailed media experiences she mentioned had been based on “stolen” details within an affidavit for that SSA.
The SSA did look into. It found the information was not a matter of state security and which the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “enough motive” for that media to expose it.
A fresh board and management has since taken over the NLC and So far have taken steps to end corruption at the establishment.
A State Stability Agency (SSA) investigation found that the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “delivered sufficient motive” for publicity with the media.
The probe into meant “facts stability breaches and sabotage of NLC functions” was undertaken following then-NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda wrote to your SSA in December 2018 requesting it to analyze.
Here's
Nevhutanda’s letter,
an affidavit by now suspended NLC firm secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the ask for, and
the safety agency’s “confidential” findings and recommendations.
Nevhutanda questioned the SSA to investigate the position of NLC staff members during the alleged leaking of data, and Nene, in her affidavit discovered unique media and experiences that she claimed associated these leaks.
In the letter outlining its results, the SSA advised the NLC that although defending point out facts was “a legal very important aimed toward defending the sovereignty and integrity of your condition” this only placed on appropriately categorised data.
Even though it didn't say so straight, the SSA findings implied that the allegedly leaked information did not fall into this category.
Substantially, the SSA produced it clear that the necessity to secure state information “would not protect against any specific from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or criminality”.
The SSA investigation identified which the NLC info involved with the alleged breach was “delicate and privileged in mother nature, although not categorised when it comes to the prescripts from the Bare minimum Facts Protection Standards (Overlook)”.
“The leakage of your appropriate sensitive official NLC facts to the media will not pose a menace to national security,” the SSA reported, including that the effect from the breaches was reputational.
The SSA report found “no proof of a factual and incriminating character versus any in the suspected NLC workers that may be determined from the information and data interrogated”.
Additionally, it stated that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities within the NLC and at its beneficiaries does give ample motive to possess this sort of uncovered within the media”.
Conspiracy claims
In 2020, Nevhutanda advised MPs during a session of Parliament’s trade, market and Level of competition portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” in which info “stolen” through the NLC was sent towards the US, exactly where he claimed it absolutely was remaining marketed to fund a smear campaign against the NLC.
He was repeating identical statements he experienced Formerly produced in Parliament, which bundled ad hominem assaults on GroundUp which reporter but was watchful not to call either.
“I came below On this August dwelling final yr and described to honourable users that information about our beneficiaries has become stolen and place in a single condition in the united states,” he instructed MPs.
“We identified as over the Point out Protection Agency to come consider the make a difference since we are getting experiences that our facts is creating cash for media platforms and journalists,” he said. “There was speak, of course from one particular source, one particular media, that spoke much about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda explained (referring to GroundUp), but didn't inform MPs the SSA investigation had been done Nearly a yr previously.
Proactive funding was at the center on the looting of your lottery. It facet-stepped the traditional grant system. The NLC could alone detect a project to fund and appoint a non-profit organisation to supervise it.
Just after Nevhutanda initially instructed Parliament in 2018 that he had questioned the SSA to research the supposed breach, the South African Countrywide Editors Forum issued a press release stating that his remarks mirrored “an especially harmful Angle in which the media is being blamed to the NLC’s inherent problems”.
“In lieu of investigating why millions cannot be accounted for, the NLC has alternatively made an effort to Forged question on the integrity from the journalists concerned and has asked the SSA to investigate their resources.”
Proactive jobs built secret
Stability flaws discovered from the NLC grant funding process over the SSA’s investigation, look to have already been utilized being an excuse via the NLC to get rid of all proactive-funded projects from its central grants process.
“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all pro-actively funding initiatives was heightened to ‘magic formula’ and initiatives were removed from the grant funding process and maintained manually under the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Facts Office, Executive Manager Legal in an effort to safeguard [the] facts,” Nene reported in her affidavit.
“There was a lot of internal dialogue, with numerous forwards and backwards, about what to do to plug the alleged leaks”, a source, who was in a senior posture for the NLC at enough time, informed GroundUp. “In the end, the choice was taken to remove many of the proactive assignments from the process and limit entry to A few folks”.
Some in that handful of folks had been implicated in corruption.
Maselwa, who resigned with the NLC several several years ago, is implicated in corruption involving lottery cash. He received R4.three-million from lottery money allotted to build a library and museum complex in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural Tunes and Arts Expo) which he utilized to construct a home within an upmarket gated advancement in Pretoria. The property is one of numerous paid out for with lottery resources that were frozen following the Asset Forfeiture Unit received a preservation purchase in December 2022.
The politically-linked Nevhutanda, who was appointed as the NLC board chairperson by former President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was close to higher-ups during the ANC Management, previous NLC former Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-chief running officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated within the corruption which overcome the NLC on their view.
Also implicated are previous board customers William Huma, who resigned right after he was confronted with proof of how he had profited from corrupt lottery grants, and Muthuhadini Madzivhandila, who's got given that died.
Every time a new administration, such as the overall board and govt, took more than 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-centered. Essential documents ended up missing. Documents held for safekeeping by doc storage firm Metrofile were signed out and never ever returned.
The NLC was in a position to Get well copies of some cat888 documents from its Mimecast electronic mail archiving process as well as the laptops in their assistants and assist staff.
News experiences
In his 1 December 2018 letter, resolved to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has noted with grave worry probable details protection breaches and also the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of confidential data received on account of performing official functions within the Commission by NLC workers. The actions are intended to undermine the integrity of the Fee though disrupting the helpful features [in the NLC] and leading to insurmountable reputational harm into the Commission as the custodian of private details entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”
His ask for to the SSA to analyze was supported in an affidavit by suspended NLC corporation secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.
Nene is at present facing a disciplinary inquiry soon after she was unsuccessful in lawful motion to set aside findings of irregular expenditure on her look at.
The goal of her affidavit, Nene said, was “to file the gatherings which transpired concerning information security breaches in the National Lotteries Fee”.
She mentioned various information stories which she claimed ended up the final results of those “breaches” (see at the end of this short article).
Nene said that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that amongst its staff members, Sello Qhino, had “delivered her categorized NLC Information and facts and persistently encouraged her to offer the information to GroundUp”.
Qhino, who blew the whistle on the number of dodgy lottery-funded projects in Kuruman soon after tries to raise the issue internally have been overlooked, was subsequently fired.
Referring to an eighteen November 2018 article inside the Day-to-day Dispatch with regard to the misappropriation of Lottery funds, Nene said that the NLC discovered and then suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an staff during the NLC’s East London Business, who was the husband or wife plus the mother of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s a few little ones.
Rungqu and Makatse imagine Rungqu was punished since Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and billed internally, With all the NLC spending R470,000 on attorneys to stand for it, but was identified not responsible and permitted to return to operate.
“The typical Consider these article content is [they entail] labeled information and facts relating to proactive funding tasks,” Nene stated in her affidavit.
When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out in the household property to take the warmth off her and his small children. Struggling with homelessness, he moved into an Office environment in an vacant manufacturing facility belonging to a buddy.
The two Makatse and Qhino are participating in an NLC reparation course of action intended to recognise the hurt a number of people suffered for the hands with the NLC. Apologies and, in some cases, money compensation are anticipated.
“Some people today had been seriously affected really negatively by this … This is admittedly distressing,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz told the Everyday Maverick previous 12 months.
“I fulfilled a handful of these people today. It absolutely was just so coronary heart-wrenching that their complete lives have already been turned upside down,” said Scholtz.
Among Those people she fulfilled had been Qhino and Makatse.
Safe System required for whistleblowers
The SSA found the absence at enough time of a proper channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to show to the media.
“Failure to have a focused anti-corruption channel will lead to staff members presenting this sort of scenarios beyond the NLC,” the SSA stated in its results.
“Presented the magnitude of corruption in point out establishments, it continues to be crucial that it ensures that the NLC complies with all security prescripts Which its focus is on ensuring that unlawful and irregular perform is adequately mitigated in opposition to and by making certain an satisfactory channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward conduct without remaining intimidated.”
It proposed the NLC establish a “Harmless channel” for employees to provide information on any “untoward exercise” that might not stop or discourage workforce from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers policy, based upon the Guarded Disclosures Act twenty five of 2000, is a necessity.”
Media stories Nene mentioned
A 10 December 2017 report inside the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Health and fitness and Fitness Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has worked closely with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and operator of the Limpopo Mirror, to show NLC corruption. “The article experienced things of data not readily available in the public domain, thus elevating concern on interior Facts safety breaches. The allegations within the media were being independently investigated,” Nene claimed. “Nonetheless, employees to blame for divulging classified facts have however being identified”;
A 28 January 2018 write-up released from the Dally Dispatch “citing several allegations with the Limpopo Mirror posting published on 10 December 2017 along with a new allegation referring to a former employee from the name of Mzukisi Makatse. He was billed and summarily dismissed for that risk triggered towards the organisation.”
A sixteen November 2018 short article while in the Lowvelder in regards to the misappropriation of NLC funds involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has claimed how, Regardless of acquiring R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab has never been done. “The Lowvelder write-up contained categorised info concerning NLC policy, elevating even further concerns of inner facts stability breaches,” Nene said in her affidavit. “The prima facie evidence with regard to these allegations didn't warrant an unbiased Investigation, however [it] highlighted the heightened info security dangers within the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose a few dodgy R27.five-million grant to Denzhe Principal Care, a hijacked NPO. Nene said GroundUp experienced confirmed in its Tale that it had been depending on leaked NLC files. This was despite the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Advertising of Use of Info) ask for for specifics about the job, she stated