Lottery bosses turned to State Protection Company to analyze leaks
Lottery bosses turned to State Protection Company to analyze leaks
Blog Article
Former Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda requested the Condition Protection Company (SSA) in December 2018 to analyze the leaking of files that uncovered lottery corruption.
The NLC’s business secretary at time shown media experiences she said had been dependant on “stolen” information within an affidavit for that SSA.
The SSA did examine. It identified the information wasn't a make any difference of condition security and which the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “sufficient motive” to the media to reveal it.
A new board and administration has considering that taken over the NLC and To this point have taken actions to finish corruption at the establishment.
A Condition Protection Company (SSA) investigation located which the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “presented enough motive” for publicity through the media.
The probe into intended “information and facts security breaches and sabotage of NLC operations” was carried out following then-NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda wrote on the SSA in December 2018 requesting it to analyze.
Here is
Nevhutanda’s letter,
an affidavit by at the moment suspended NLC corporation secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the ask for, and
the security company’s “private” results and recommendations.
Nevhutanda questioned the SSA to research the part of NLC workers within the alleged leaking of data, and Nene, in her affidavit recognized specific media and stories that she claimed concerned these leaks.
During the letter outlining its findings, the SSA instructed the NLC that although protecting condition information and facts was “a legal essential directed at guarding the sovereignty and integrity on the condition” this only placed on properly labeled information and facts.
Even though it didn't say so instantly, the SSA conclusions implied the allegedly leaked data didn't drop into this category.
Considerably, the SSA made it clear that the necessity to defend state information “would not protect against any personal from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or illegal activity”.
The SSA investigation located which the NLC data involved in the alleged breach was “sensitive and privileged in character, although not classified with regard to the prescripts from the Bare minimum Information and facts Security Specifications (Miss out on)”.
“The leakage of your related sensitive official NLC info for the media will not pose a risk to national security,” the SSA said, introducing the affect in the breaches was reputational.
The SSA report identified “no proof of a factual and incriminating nature from any on the suspected NLC staff that could be determined from the information and knowledge interrogated”.
In addition, it mentioned that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities within the NLC and at its beneficiaries does present enough motive to possess these uncovered within the media”.
Conspiracy claims
In 2020, Nevhutanda advised MPs all through a session of Parliament’s trade, industry and Competitiveness portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” where information and facts “stolen” within the NLC was despatched on the US, the place he claimed it was being bought to fund a smear campaign against the NLC.
He was repeating identical statements he experienced Formerly made in Parliament, which involved ad hominem assaults on GroundUp which reporter but was mindful not to call either.
“I came below On this August dwelling final 12 months and claimed to honourable members that details about our beneficiaries has long been stolen and set in a single point out in the usa,” he told MPs.
“We referred to as about the Condition Safety Agency to return take a look at the matter simply because we've been finding stories that our details is producing money for media platforms and journalists,” he claimed. “There's been communicate, not surprisingly from one particular resource, a single media, that spoke much about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda explained (referring to GroundUp), but failed to inform MPs that the SSA investigation were finished Practically a 12 months earlier.
Proactive funding was at the heart of the looting from the lottery. It facet-stepped the conventional grant system. The NLC could by itself determine a job to fund and appoint a non-revenue organisation to oversee it.
Just after Nevhutanda first told Parliament in 2018 that he experienced requested the SSA to research the intended breach, the South African Nationwide Editors Discussion board issued a statement stating that his remarks reflected “a particularly hazardous Mindset where the media is remaining blamed with the NLC’s inherent complications”.
“Instead of investigating why tens of millions can't be accounted for, the NLC has as an alternative made an effort to cast doubt on the integrity with the journalists involved and has questioned the SSA to analyze their sources.”
Proactive assignments made key
Protection flaws discovered within the NLC grant funding technique in the SSA’s investigation, appear to have already been utilised as an excuse through the NLC to remove all proactive-funded tasks from its central grants method.
“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all pro-actively funding projects was heightened to ‘top secret’ and initiatives have been removed from the grant funding procedure and preserved manually under the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Information and facts Office environment, Executive Manager Lawful in an effort to safeguard [the] info,” Nene claimed in her affidavit.
“There was lots of inside dialogue, with a lot of back and forth, about how to proceed to plug the alleged leaks”, a resource, who was inside a senior situation in the NLC at enough time, explained to GroundUp. “Eventually, the decision was taken to remove the many proactive initiatives within the system and Restrict use of A few persons”.
Some in that handful of individuals have been implicated in corruption.
Maselwa, who resigned from your NLC a number of years back, has become implicated in corruption involving lottery money. He received R4.3-million from lottery resources allocated to build a library and museum advanced in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural Songs and Arts Expo) which he applied to construct a dwelling in an upmarket gated progress in Pretoria. The home is one of many compensated for with lottery funds which were frozen after the Asset Forfeiture Unit acquired a preservation purchase in December 2022.
The politically-connected Nevhutanda, who was appointed since the NLC board chairperson by former President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was close to higher-ups inside the ANC leadership, previous NLC previous Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated during the corruption which confused the NLC on their own enjoy.
Also implicated are former board associates William Huma, who resigned just after he was confronted with proof of how he had profited from corrupt lottery grants, and Muthuhadini Madzivhandila, that has because died.
Each time a new administration, including the total board and government, took in excess of in the NLC in late 2022 and early 2023, they found a “chaotic mess” from the documentation associated with proactive funding, A lot of which was paper-based mostly. Important paperwork were missing. Documents held for safekeeping by doc storage company Metrofile had been signed out and never ever returned.
The NLC was in the position to Get better copies of some หวย วัน นี้ files from its Mimecast email archiving process as well as the laptops of their assistants and support workers.
Information experiences
In his one December 2018 letter, dealt with to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has noted with grave problem doable info security breaches along with the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of confidential data acquired as a result of performing Formal features inside the Fee by NLC staff members. The routines are intended to undermine the integrity of your Commission though disrupting the helpful functions [of the NLC] and resulting in insurmountable reputational harm to your Fee since the custodian of private info entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”
His request for the SSA to investigate was supported in an affidavit by suspended NLC organization secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.
Nene is at this time facing a disciplinary inquiry soon after she was unsuccessful in authorized action to set aside results of irregular expenditure on her check out.
The goal of her affidavit, Nene reported, was “to history the events which transpired relating to information stability breaches with the National Lotteries Fee”.
She outlined many news reports which she claimed were being the final results of these “breaches” (see at the conclusion of this post).
Nene said that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that amongst its personnel, Sello Qhino, experienced “presented her categorised NLC Information and persistently encouraged her to supply the knowledge to GroundUp”.
Qhino, who blew the whistle on the series of dodgy lottery-funded assignments in Kuruman immediately after makes an attempt to boost the issue internally were ignored, was subsequently fired.
Referring to an eighteen November 2018 report while in the Everyday Dispatch in regards to the misappropriation of Lottery funds, Nene reported the NLC identified and then suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an personnel inside the NLC’s East London Workplace, who was the associate as well as the mother of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s three youngsters.
Rungqu and Makatse feel Rungqu was punished due to the fact Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and charged internally, While using the NLC paying out R470,000 on attorneys to depict it, but was located not guilty and allowed to return to operate.
“The frequent Think about these article content is always that [they include] labeled info regarding proactive funding tasks,” Nene reported in her affidavit.
When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out in the family members household to go ahead and take warmth off her and his kids. Going through homelessness, he moved into an office within an empty factory belonging to a colleague.
Both equally Makatse and Qhino are participating in an NLC reparation system intended to recognise the damage some people endured within the hands in the NLC. Apologies and, sometimes, economical payment are envisioned.
“Some people had been genuinely influenced pretty negatively by this … This is really painful,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz told the Daily Maverick past calendar year.
“I satisfied a number of these people. It absolutely was just so heart-wrenching that their whole life have already been turned upside down,” claimed Scholtz.
Amongst Those people she fulfilled were Qhino and Makatse.
Safe and sound platform wanted for whistleblowers
The SSA found the absence at time of a suitable channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to show to the media.
“Failure to have a devoted anti-corruption channel will cause staff members presenting these types of instances outside of the NLC,” the SSA said in its conclusions.
“Specified the magnitude of corruption in point out establishments, it remains essential that it ensures that the NLC complies with all stability prescripts Which its emphasis is on guaranteeing that illegal and irregular conduct is sufficiently mitigated versus and by making sure an adequate channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward perform devoid of staying intimidated.”
It encouraged the NLC build a “Protected channel” for workers to supply info on any “untoward activity” that might not prevent or discourage personnel from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers plan, according to the Secured Disclosures Act twenty five of 2000, is really a necessity.”
Media stories Nene detailed
A 10 December 2017 report from the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Health and fitness and Health and fitness Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has worked closely with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and owner of your Limpopo Mirror, to show NLC corruption. “The report had elements of knowledge not obtainable in the general public domain, thus elevating issue on inside Info stability breaches. The allegations from the media were independently investigated,” Nene claimed. “Nonetheless, workforce answerable for divulging categorised details have nevertheless to be identified”;
A 28 January 2018 post revealed with the Dally Dispatch “citing a lot of allegations from the Limpopo Mirror article printed on 10 December 2017 and a new allegation relating to a previous personnel with the name of Mzukisi Makatse. He was billed and summarily dismissed for that menace brought on towards the organisation.”
A sixteen November 2018 short article while in the Lowvelder with regard to the misappropriation of NLC money involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has reported how, Regardless of acquiring R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab has never been concluded. “The Lowvelder post contained labeled information and facts with regards to NLC coverage, increasing further considerations of inner facts protection breaches,” Nene claimed in her affidavit. “The prima facie proof regarding these allegations did not warrant an independent Investigation, nonetheless [it] highlighted the heightened details security risks within the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose a few dodgy R27.5-million grant to Denzhe Main Treatment, a hijacked NPO. Nene explained GroundUp had verified in its story that it absolutely was determined by leaked NLC documents. This was despite the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Advertising of Use of Information) request for details with regard to the undertaking, she claimed