President Cyril Ramaphosa is standing firm on his plan to probe corruption at the National Lotteries Commission (Photo by Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
court application by former Lotteries boss Alfred Nevhutanda.Nevhutanda is seeking to set aside Ramaphosa’s
proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe
corruption at the National Lottery Commission.The SIU, which is also opposing Nevhutanda’s
application, says Nevhutanda’s true motive is to avoid the consequences of
his alleged crimes.For more
financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is standing firm on his decision to sign a
proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe
corruption at the National Lotteries Commision (NLC).
Ramaphosa has filed a personal affidavit in a court application launched in
the Pretoria High Court by Alfred Nevhutanda, former chairman of the NLC, in
which Nevhutanda seeks to review and set aside the proclamation signed in
October 2020.
That application gave the SIU authority to investigate “maladministration” in the NLC from January 2014 to October 2020 which, Ramaphosa notes in his
opposing affidavit, “falls in the main under [Nevhutanda’s] tenure”.
The investigation has led to the preservation of assets valued at
R344 million, including a R27 million Pretoria mansion allegedly owned by
Nevhutanda and bought with lottery funds.
Nevhutanda wants the proclamation to be declared unlawful because, he says,
the NLC is not an organ of state, nor does it deal with public money, and both,
he says, are prerequisites for authority under the SIU Act.
Further, he says, the proclamation is too broad – giving the SIU the power
to “go on a fishing expedition, permitting it to turn over any stone to its
heart’s content”.
He also claims that Ramaphosa did not apply his mind properly when he signed
the proclamation.
But Ramaphosa says there is no legal basis for Nevhutanda’s complaints, and
that the review is out of time.
He says the NLC and the National Lottery Distribution Trust, which it
administers, are state institutions. The NLC is tasked with ensuring the proper
conduct of the Lottery and for administering the funds paid over by the
operator. The NLC and the trust deal with public money.
He says as usual with SIU requests (for proclamations), the matter underwent
a series of reviews — including consideration by the Minister of Justice —
before a “document pack”, containing the outcome of the provisional
investigation landed on his desk.
The pack, he says, contained specific allegations and statements suggesting
that grants might have been paid out irregularly and improperly and that family
members of NLC officials had benefited.
With regard to the allegations, while specific examples were identified, “the documentation before me suggested that the potential irregularities in
grant allocations and payments was likely more widespread”.
Ramaphosa said even if Nevhutanda’s assertions were proved correct, it would
still not be just and equitable for the proclamation to be set aside, since the
investigation had been going on for more than two and a half years, at
considerable expense to the NLC.
The SIU, which is also opposing the application, says Nevhutanda’s true
motive is to get back assets which have been preserved, prevent their
forfeiture to the state and avoid the consequences of his alleged crimes.
But Juliana Rabaji-Rasethaba, the head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit on
behalf of the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), said in an
affidavit that this would not be the result if Nevhutanda succeeded. The NDPP
is also opposing his application.
Rabaji-Rasethaba said the NDPP had statutory powers which allowed her to
approach the courts to preserve assets deemed to be proceeds of crime.
These powers should not be conflated with the powers conferred on the
President and the SIU.
“It would therefore be incorrect to argue that, if the (proclamation)
decision was ‘illegal’, it sullies the decisions of the NDPP and the
preservation orders it has obtained. These were self-standing decisions which
can only be rescinded by a court of law.”
Rabaji-Rasethaba said Nevhutanda was not challenging the decision by the
NDPP to obtain the orders and there was also no challenge to the preservation
orders obtained.
Her affidavit argues that the NLC is indeed a state entity and that the
proclamation is lawful.
Nevhutanda will have to file a final affidavit before the matter is set down
for hearing.
GroundUp has previously
reported that his review application is delaying the forfeiture of millions
of rands of assets, including properties, luxury vehicles and two Ocean Basket
franchises owned by people implicated in the plundering of Lottery funds —
currently being preserved as “proceeds of crime”.
In an order handed down last year, Pretoria High Court Judge Nelisa Mali,
who was dealing with an application brought by the National Prosecuting
Authority for the final forfeiture of the assets to the state, postponed it to
an undetermined date to allow for the final determination of Nevhutanda’s
application.
