Lottery bosses turned to Point out Stability Company to analyze leaks

Lottery bosses turned to Point out Stability Company to analyze leaks

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Previous Nationwide Lotteries Commission (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda requested the State Stability Company (SSA) in December 2018 to investigate the leaking of documents that exposed lottery corruption.
The NLC’s business secretary at enough time shown media reviews she explained were being determined by “stolen” information in an affidavit for the SSA.
The SSA did look into. It uncovered the information wasn't a matter of point out protection and that the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “enough motive” with the media to reveal it.
A new board and management has due to the fact taken around the NLC and To this point have taken actions to finish corruption for the institution.
A Point out Security Agency (SSA) investigation observed which the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “supplied ample motive” for exposure from the media.

The probe into supposed “details safety breaches and sabotage of NLC operations” was carried out just after then-NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda wrote into the SSA in December 2018 requesting it to analyze.

Here is

Nevhutanda’s letter,
an affidavit by presently suspended NLC business secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the ask for, and
the security company’s “confidential” conclusions and suggestions.
Nevhutanda questioned the SSA to research the role of NLC team while in the alleged leaking of data, and Nene, in her affidavit recognized unique media and reviews that she claimed included these leaks.

In the letter outlining its findings, the SSA instructed the NLC that though defending condition facts was “a lawful imperative geared toward defending the sovereignty and integrity on the condition” this only applied to correctly categorised information and facts.

Even though it did not say so straight, the SSA findings implied which the allegedly leaked data did not tumble into this class.

Substantially, the SSA made it apparent that the need to secure condition information and facts “isn't going to stop any particular person from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or illegal activity”.

The SSA investigation observed which the NLC details involved with the alleged breach was “delicate and privileged in mother nature, although not classified with regards to the prescripts with the Minimum amount Information Security Requirements (Skip)”.

“The leakage from the pertinent sensitive Formal NLC facts to your media isn't going to pose a risk to countrywide protection,” the SSA mentioned, adding the effect of the breaches was reputational.

The SSA report uncovered “no evidence of the factual and incriminating nature from any from the suspected NLC staff members that may be determined from the data and information interrogated”.

In addition it stated that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities inside the NLC and at its beneficiaries does give sufficient motive to acquire such uncovered in the media”.

Conspiracy claims
In 2020, Nevhutanda told MPs in the course of a session of Parliament’s trade, market and Competitiveness portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” through which data “stolen” from your NLC was sent into the US, the place he claimed it was remaining offered to fund a smear marketing campaign in opposition to the NLC.

He was repeating similar statements he experienced previously manufactured in Parliament, which included advertisement hominem assaults on GroundUp which reporter but was careful not to name both.

“I came below Within this August property very last calendar year and reported to honourable associates that information about our beneficiaries has actually been stolen and set in one point out in the united states,” he advised MPs.

“We referred to as about the State Stability Company to come back investigate the make a difference mainly because we have been having experiences that our facts is making money for media platforms and journalists,” he said. “There have been converse, certainly from just one source, one particular media, that spoke Considerably about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda said (referring to GroundUp), but did not inform MPs that the SSA investigation had been completed Just about a year earlier.

Proactive funding was at the guts in the looting with the lottery. It facet-stepped the traditional grant system. The NLC could itself recognize a job to fund and appoint a non-income organisation to supervise it.

Just after Nevhutanda 1st instructed Parliament in 2018 that he experienced asked the SSA to analyze the intended breach, the South African National Editors Forum issued a press release declaring that his remarks mirrored “a very harmful Mind-set exactly where the media is staying blamed for the NLC’s inherent troubles”.

“Instead of investigating why thousands and thousands can't be accounted for, the NLC has instead made an effort to Forged question over the integrity of the journalists involved and it has questioned the SSA to research their sources.”

Proactive projects made secret
Stability flaws determined while in the NLC grant funding program throughout the SSA’s investigation, appear to are actually utilised as an excuse by the NLC to get rid of all proactive-funded jobs from its central grants technique.

“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all Professional-actively funding projects was heightened to ‘solution’ and projects have been faraway from the grant funding process and maintained manually under the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Details Office environment, Govt Supervisor Authorized so as to safeguard [the] information and facts,” Nene reported in her affidavit.

“There was a lot of interior dialogue, with a great deal of backwards and forwards, about what to do to plug the alleged leaks”, a resource, who was in the senior place in the NLC at some time, advised GroundUp. “In the end, the choice was taken to remove the many proactive tasks within the program and Restrict access to a handful of persons”.

Some in that handful of people have been implicated in corruption.

Maselwa, who resigned within the NLC a number of several years in the past, has been implicated in corruption involving lottery funds. He obtained R4.3-million from lottery funds allocated to build a library and museum complicated in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural Songs and Arts Expo) which he utilized to construct a home within an upmarket gated progress in Pretoria. The residence is one of several compensated for with lottery money which were frozen following the Asset Forfeiture Device received a preservation order in December 2022.

The politically-linked Nevhutanda, who was appointed because the NLC board chairperson by previous President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was close to substantial-ups within the ANC Management, previous NLC former Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-chief running officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated in the corruption which overcome the NLC on their check out.

Also implicated are previous board members 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 considering the fact that died.

When a new administration, such as the entire board and govt, took around at the NLC in late 2022 and early 2023, they found out a “chaotic mess” in the documentation concerning proactive funding, A great deal of which was paper-dependent. Critical files were being lacking. Documents held for safekeeping by doc storage corporation Metrofile had been signed out and never ever returned.

The NLC was in the position to Recuperate copies of some ตัว หวย files from its Mimecast email archiving program plus the laptops in their assistants and support workers.

News reviews
In his 1 December 2018 letter, addressed to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has mentioned with grave concern feasible info security breaches and the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of private facts acquired as a result of accomplishing official capabilities from the Commission by NLC workforce. The pursuits are meant to undermine the integrity on the Fee although disrupting the helpful functions [with the NLC] and creating insurmountable reputational damage into the Fee because the custodian of non-public facts entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”

His ask for for the SSA to investigate was supported in an affidavit by suspended NLC business secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.

Nene is now experiencing a disciplinary inquiry just after she was unsuccessful in lawful motion to put aside results of irregular expenditure on her enjoy.

The purpose of her affidavit, Nene mentioned, was “to document the occasions which transpired concerning data stability breaches in the Nationwide Lotteries Fee”.

She listed numerous news studies which she claimed ended up the results of such “breaches” (see at the conclusion of this post).

Nene explained that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that one among its personnel, Sello Qhino, experienced “furnished her classified NLC Details and persistently encouraged her to deliver the knowledge to GroundUp”.

Qhino, who blew the whistle on a number of dodgy lottery-funded assignments in Kuruman right after tries to raise The difficulty internally were being overlooked, was subsequently fired.

Referring to an eighteen November 2018 write-up in the Day-to-day Dispatch regarding the misappropriation of Lottery resources, Nene said that the NLC determined and then suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an employee inside the NLC’s East London Business office, who was the lover as well as mom of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s 3 small children.

Rungqu and Makatse believe Rungqu was punished simply because Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and charged internally, While using the NLC paying out R470,000 on lawyers to signify it, but was uncovered not responsible and allowed to return to operate.

“The frequent Think about these articles or blog posts is always that [they include] classified information and facts regarding proactive funding assignments,” Nene said in her affidavit.

When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out with the relatives home to take the warmth off her and his kids. Experiencing homelessness, he moved into an Place of work in an empty manufacturing facility belonging to a colleague.

Equally Makatse and Qhino are participating in an NLC reparation course of action intended to recognise the harm some individuals suffered within the hands of the NLC. Apologies and, in some cases, economical compensation are envisioned.

“Some persons had been definitely impacted really negatively by this … This is actually distressing,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz advised the Daily Maverick final yr.

“I fulfilled two or three these people. It had been just so heart-wrenching that their complete lives have been turned upside down,” mentioned Scholtz.

Amid Individuals she satisfied had been Qhino and Makatse.

Secure platform necessary for whistleblowers
The SSA discovered the absence at some time of a correct channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to show on the media.

“Failure to possess a devoted anti-corruption channel will bring about personnel presenting this kind of scenarios outside of the NLC,” the SSA mentioned in its conclusions.

“Given the magnitude of corruption in condition institutions, it stays very important that it ensures that the NLC complies with all security prescripts and that its target is on making certain that illegal and irregular conduct is adequately mitigated against and by ensuring an adequate channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward perform without being intimidated.”

It proposed the NLC set up a “Secure channel” for workers to supply information on any “untoward action” that will not prevent or discourage staff members from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers policy, dependant on the Safeguarded Disclosures Act twenty five of 2000, is actually a need.”

Media reports Nene shown
A ten December 2017 report within the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Wellbeing and Fitness Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has worked closely with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and owner in the Limpopo Mirror, to reveal NLC corruption. “The write-up had factors of information not obtainable in the public area, therefore elevating concern on interior Facts protection breaches. The allegations inside the media were independently investigated,” Nene reported. “Having said that, personnel answerable for divulging classified facts have however to generally be identified”;
A 28 January 2018 short article published with the Dally Dispatch “citing various allegations in the Limpopo Mirror report released on ten December 2017 and a new allegation referring to a former employee from the name of Mzukisi Makatse. He was billed and summarily dismissed with the danger prompted into the organisation.”
A sixteen November 2018 write-up inside the Lowvelder in regards to the misappropriation of NLC money involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has reported how, Regardless of receiving R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab hasn't been finished. “The Lowvelder article contained labeled information with regard to NLC policy, elevating further more considerations of inside information safety breaches,” Nene explained in her affidavit. “The prima facie proof with regards to these allegations didn't warrant an unbiased Investigation, however [it] highlighted the heightened info safety hazards inside the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose about a dodgy R27.five-million grant to Denzhe Primary Treatment, a hijacked NPO. Nene claimed GroundUp had confirmed in its Tale that it had been depending on leaked NLC documents. This was Regardless of the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Marketing of Access to Information and facts) request for details about the job, she mentioned