Lottery bosses turned to State Security Agency to investigate leaks

Lottery bosses turned to State Security Agency to investigate leaks

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Previous Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda asked the State Stability Company (SSA) in December 2018 to investigate the leaking of documents that exposed lottery corruption.
The NLC’s company secretary at enough time detailed media stories she claimed ended up dependant on “stolen” information in an affidavit for the SSA.
The SSA did examine. It identified the information was not a make a difference of state security and that the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “enough motive” for the media to show it.
A new board and management has considering the fact that taken in excess of the NLC and To date have taken measures to end corruption at the institution.
A Condition Protection Company (SSA) investigation found the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “offered ample motive” for exposure with the media.

The probe into meant “facts stability breaches and sabotage of NLC functions” was carried out right after then-NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda wrote on the SSA in December 2018 requesting it to analyze.

Here's

Nevhutanda’s letter,
an affidavit by currently suspended NLC company secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the request, and
the security agency’s “private” findings and suggestions.
Nevhutanda requested the SSA to analyze the part of NLC employees from the alleged leaking of data, and Nene, in her affidavit identified certain media and stories that she claimed associated these leaks.

In the letter outlining its results, the SSA advised the NLC that although defending condition facts was “a authorized critical aimed at preserving the sovereignty and integrity with the point out” this only applied to correctly labeled information.

Even though it didn't say so immediately, the SSA results implied which the allegedly leaked details did not drop into this classification.

Appreciably, the SSA made it very clear that the necessity to defend condition information and facts “doesn't avert any individual from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or illegal activity”.

The SSA investigation located that the NLC details associated with the alleged breach was “delicate and privileged in character, although not categorized regarding the prescripts in the Minimum amount Data Security Benchmarks (Skip)”.

“The leakage on the related delicate official NLC information to your media isn't going to pose a threat to countrywide security,” the SSA claimed, adding that the influence in the breaches was reputational.

The SSA report observed “no proof of the factual and incriminating mother nature against any of the suspected NLC staff that can be determined from the knowledge and info interrogated”.

Furthermore, it said that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities in the NLC and at its beneficiaries does present sufficient motive to get this kind of uncovered while in the media”.

Conspiracy promises
In 2020, Nevhutanda informed MPs all through a session of Parliament’s trade, marketplace and Level of competition portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” through which info “stolen” from the NLC was sent towards the US, where by he claimed it had been getting offered to fund a smear campaign towards the NLC.

He was repeating comparable statements he had Earlier produced in Parliament, which bundled advert hominem assaults on GroundUp which reporter but was thorough not to name either.

“I came below In this particular August home previous yr and described to honourable members that information about our beneficiaries has been stolen and set in a single condition in the united states,” he explained to MPs.

“We identified as to the Condition Protection Agency to return investigate the make a difference mainly because we are acquiring experiences that our information is generating income for media platforms and journalists,” he mentioned. “There have been speak, certainly from a single resource, a single media, that spoke Considerably about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda reported (referring to GroundUp), but failed to inform MPs which the SSA investigation had been concluded Pretty much a yr previously.

Proactive funding was at the heart of the looting with the lottery. It aspect-stepped the traditional grant procedure. The NLC could alone determine a challenge to fund and appoint a non-profit organisation to supervise it.

After Nevhutanda initially explained to 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 reflected “a particularly unsafe attitude where the media is remaining blamed for that NLC’s inherent difficulties”.

“As opposed to investigating why hundreds of thousands cannot be accounted for, the NLC has in its place attempted to cast doubt on the integrity with the journalists included and it has requested the SSA to investigate their resources.”

Proactive assignments made solution
Protection flaws identified in the NLC grant funding procedure through the SSA’s investigation, look to have already been utilised as an excuse through the NLC to remove all proactive-funded tasks from its central grants technique.

“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all pro-actively funding tasks was heightened to ‘top secret’ and initiatives have been removed from the grant funding technique and taken care of manually under the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Information Business, Government Supervisor Legal so that you can safeguard [the] data,” Nene said in her affidavit.

“There was a great deal of internal discussion, with plenty of back and forth, about what to do to plug the alleged leaks”, a source, who was in the senior situation for the NLC at enough time, told GroundUp. “In the end, the choice was taken to remove each of the proactive assignments with the procedure and Restrict entry to A few persons”.

Some in that handful of men and women ended up implicated in corruption.

Maselwa, who resigned with the NLC various a long time back, has long been implicated in corruption involving lottery cash. He obtained R4.three-million from lottery resources allocated to build a library and museum elaborate in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural Tunes and Arts Expo) which he employed to build a property in an upmarket gated growth in Pretoria. The house is one of several compensated for with lottery cash that were frozen once the Asset Forfeiture Unit received a preservation purchase in December 2022.

The politically-related Nevhutanda, who was appointed as being the NLC board chairperson by former President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was near substantial-ups while in the ANC leadership, previous NLC former Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-Main operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated while in the corruption which overwhelmed the NLC on their enjoy.

Also implicated are previous 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, who has due to the fact died.

Any time a new administration, including the whole board and executive, took above with the NLC in late 2022 and early 2023, they learned a “chaotic mess” from the documentation regarding proactive funding, A great deal of which was paper-dependent. Critical paperwork had been lacking. Data files held for safekeeping by document storage business Metrofile were signed out and never ever returned.

The NLC was capable to recover copies of some ผล หวย หุ้น documents from its Mimecast email archiving system and the laptops in their assistants and support team.

News reports
In his 1 December 2018 letter, dealt with to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has famous with grave issue attainable information safety breaches and also the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of confidential information and facts obtained because of doing Formal capabilities during the Fee by NLC employees. The actions are intended to undermine the integrity in the Commission whilst disrupting the efficient functions [of the NLC] and causing insurmountable reputational hurt to your Commission because the custodian of private information and facts entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”

His request for your SSA to analyze was supported in an affidavit by suspended NLC company secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.

Nene is now going through a disciplinary inquiry following she was unsuccessful in authorized motion to set aside results of irregular expenditure on her enjoy.

The purpose of her affidavit, Nene explained, was “to history the occasions which transpired regarding information and facts security breaches on the Nationwide Lotteries Commission”.

She detailed several information studies which she claimed ended up the final results of those “breaches” (see at the end of this post).

Nene explained that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that one among its personnel, Sello Qhino, had “delivered her labeled NLC Info and persistently inspired her to supply the data to GroundUp”.

Qhino, who blew the whistle on the number of dodgy lottery-funded tasks in Kuruman soon after makes an attempt to lift The difficulty internally had been ignored, was subsequently fired.

Referring to an eighteen November 2018 post inside the Each day Dispatch about the misappropriation of Lottery resources, Nene explained which the NLC discovered after which suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an employee during the NLC’s East London Business office, who was the husband or wife plus the mom of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s a few children.

Rungqu and Makatse believe that Rungqu was punished due to the fact Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and billed internally, While using the NLC expending R470,000 on legal professionals to characterize it, but was observed not guilty and allowed to return to work.

“The typical Think about these content is usually that [they entail] categorized information and facts regarding proactive funding tasks,” Nene reported in her affidavit.

When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out from the spouse and children residence to go ahead and take warmth off her and his kids. Experiencing homelessness, he moved into an office in an empty factory belonging to a friend.

Each Makatse and Qhino are participating in an NLC reparation method intended to recognise the harm a lot of people experienced for the palms on the NLC. Apologies and, in some instances, economic compensation are expected.

“Some people today ended up actually afflicted incredibly negatively by this … This is absolutely distressing,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz informed the Day-to-day Maverick past 12 months.

“I achieved a few these people today. It was just so heart-wrenching that their entire lives are turned the other way up,” reported Scholtz.

Among those she achieved were being Qhino and Makatse.

Safe and sound platform required for whistleblowers
The SSA discovered the absence at time of a proper channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to show to the media.

“Failure to possess a devoted anti-corruption channel will result in workforce presenting these circumstances beyond the NLC,” the SSA mentioned in its conclusions.

“Offered the magnitude of corruption in condition establishments, it remains important that it makes certain that the NLC complies with all safety prescripts and that its concentration is on ensuring that illegal and irregular carry out is sufficiently mitigated versus and by making certain an enough channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward perform with out currently being intimidated.”

It proposed which the NLC build a “Harmless channel” for workers to offer information on any “untoward activity” that would not prevent or discourage workforce from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers coverage, determined by the Guarded Disclosures Act twenty five of 2000, is actually a requirement.”

Media stories Nene shown
A 10 December 2017 report from the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Wellness and Conditioning Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has worked closely with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and proprietor with the Limpopo Mirror, to show NLC corruption. “The write-up had things of information not offered in the public domain, thereby elevating problem on inner Data safety breaches. The allegations while in the media have been independently investigated,” Nene explained. “On the other hand, personnel to blame for divulging labeled data have but to become discovered”;
A 28 January 2018 write-up published because of the Dally Dispatch “citing several allegations from the Limpopo Mirror posting revealed on ten December 2017 as well as a new allegation regarding a previous staff from the title of Mzukisi Makatse. He was billed and summarily dismissed with the threat triggered on the organisation.”
A sixteen November 2018 posting in the Lowvelder with regards to the misappropriation of NLC resources involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has claimed how, Despite obtaining R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab has not been finished. “The Lowvelder write-up contained classified information and facts concerning NLC coverage, raising further problems of internal information safety breaches,” Nene said in her affidavit. “The prima facie evidence regarding these allegations didn't warrant an unbiased Investigation, on the other hand [it] highlighted the heightened details stability dangers in the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose a few dodgy R27.five-million grant to Denzhe Main Care, a hijacked NPO. Nene stated GroundUp had confirmed in its story that it absolutely was depending on leaked NLC documents. This was Regardless of the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Marketing of Entry to Data) request for specifics with regards to the task, she explained