Instead of building drug rehabilitation centres, old age homes and empowerment workshops, millions of funds from the National Lotteries Commission were used to buy luxury homes, vehicles and for the repayment of personal loans.
This was revealed during an explosive presentation by the Special Investigating Unit on Wednesday during a trade and industry portfolio committee meeting.
Trade and Industry minister Ebrahim Patel was notably absent from the committee meeting.
Chief national investigations officer Leonard Lekgetho said the SIU would seek to recover any losses made by the NLC as a result of millions being siphoned off into the personal accounts of senior NLC officials, their relatives and members of the board.
However, NLC spokesperson Ndivhuho Mafela said the commission had noted several inconsistencies in the SIU presentation and the tone of its social media reporting.
Mafela said the tone served to frame adverse conclusions in the minds of the public while investigations were yet to be concluded.
Lekgetho said the SIU had already started with the preservation of properties acquired by members of Inqaba Yokulinda NPO.
“A preservation order has been granted in favour of the SIU in respect to ERF 1618 Ext 8 in Zwartkop belonging to Mr Tshifhiwa Magogodela as well as vehicles belonging to Mr Jabu Sibanda and vehicles owned by Boitumelo Diutlwileng,” he said.
According to an independent deed search by Sowetan, Magogodela bought a R1.2m two-bedroom home in Centurion in February 2018, the same year the non-profit organisation received R19m from the NLC. This is the same property the SIU successfully obtained a preservation order on.
Both Magogodela and Khoza did not respond to calls and text messages
Sibanda allegedly bought a Honda Jazz, Mercedes-Benz AMG E63, and Mercedes-Benz CLK AMG 63 while Duitlwikeng is alleged to have bought an Audi A3.
The SIU is also seeking to set aside R19m awarded to the NPO and that its CEO Buyiswa Khoza pay back R5m she used for personal gain.
The grant funding was for constructing athletics tracks in the North West and the Northern Cape.
“Athletic tracks, changeroom renovations, soccer field grass and stadium grandstand painting was only done after the NLC approved further funding amounting to R4.2m. There is no value for money,” Lekgetho said.
Lekgatho revealed how in one instance a former official “hijacked” an NPO that was granted R23m for the construction of an old age home in Mpumalanga.
“The known individual changed the bank account of NPO 7 without the knowledge of the legitimate members.
“The legitimate members of NPO 7 became aware that the NLC paid grant funding to the value of R22.5m to their NPO. They then approached the NLC to alert them that they paid money to the hijackers of NPO 7.
“NLC arranged a meeting with the legitimate members of NPO 7 and the hijackers to try and resolve the issues amicably. Instead of opening a criminal case against the hijackers and recovering the money, the NLC opted to grant further funding of R7.8m to the legitimate members of NPO 7,” he said.
Construction of the old age home by the legitimate NPO members started but was eventually abandoned.
Lekgetho told the committee the establishment of trusts by senior officials at the NLC had been used as conduits to launder money.
SIU head Andy Mothibi told the committee phase one of the investigation revealed that R300m had been siphoned from the NLC.
“The team is still going on to quantify the [entire sum] as there are still a further 12 NPOs to investigate. The amount may still escalate.
“[There have been] no referrals to the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority. We’ll refer those to the NPA by March 31.
“We’ve uncovered a web of corrupt networks, through detailed investigations and analysis and observed the modus operandi used to siphon money from NLC to various NPOs which involved the use of vehicles such as legal firms.
“We’ve also observed there’s a high measure of collusion between NLC officials, NPOs and NPCs [non-profit companies]. We’ve also observed collusion between some board members of NLC, NPOs and NPCs", Mothibi said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.