DA calls for urgent Parliamentary committee meeting over Lottery corruption scandal  

29 January 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the Chairperson of the Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee, Duma Nkosi requesting that an urgent committee meeting is held to get to the bottom of the corruption scandal which has consumed the National Lottery Commission (NLC) and threatens to derail it.

This follows further allegations by GroundUp that COO, Philemon Letwaba’s wife Rebottle Malomane scored R4.8 million in grant funding in 2017. Investigations have revealed that Malomane’s NGO, Zibsimanzi, a shelf company, received the grant without anything to show for it.

This latest revelation follows a litany of allegations of corruption against Letwaba which the NLC has failed to do anything about, all at the expense of deserving charities which have had their funds distributed to friends and family of Letwaba.

That is why the DA previously wrote to Trade and Industry Minister, Ibrahim Patel, urging him to fire the Board of the NLC, place it under administration and seek to have senior executives placed on suspension pending the outcome of a credible forensic audit. To date, we have not had any response from Minister Patel.

Next week, the Trade and Industry Committee will be on oversight in Gauteng and there will be no better opportunity to visit the scene of the crime at the NLC offices, call the Board, COO and Chairperson to a meeting and explain what is going on in order to make sense of the crisis and reassure South Africans that something is being done in the current vacuum being created by the Minister.

Since the Minister is unwilling to take action, it is incumbent on the portfolio committee to get to the bottom of this cesspool which has taken root in the NLC.

The DA will not relent until Minister Patel takes action against the NLC as well as ensuring that Parliament holds them accountable for these serious allegations. Its time that we grill Letwaba and the Chairperson and hold their feet to the fire in order to get answers from them.

Issued by Dean Macpherson,DA Shadow Minister of Trade, Industry and Economic Development, 29 January 2020