Lottery bosses turned to Point out Safety Agency to research leaks

Lottery bosses turned to Point out Safety Agency to research leaks

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Previous National Lotteries Fee (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda asked the Condition Stability Company (SSA) in December 2018 to analyze the leaking of files that uncovered lottery corruption.
The NLC’s firm secretary at enough time stated media experiences she said were according to “stolen” info within an affidavit for that SSA.
The SSA did examine. It identified the data was not a make a difference of point out safety and which the “prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities” gave “sufficient motive” with the media to reveal it.
A brand new board and administration has given that taken around the NLC and To this point have taken actions to finish corruption in the institution.
A Condition Protection Company (SSA) investigation uncovered that the “prevalence” of alleged corruption and irregularities involving the NLC and its beneficiaries “offered sufficient motive” for exposure with the media.

The probe into intended “data protection breaches and sabotage of NLC operations” was undertaken following then-NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda wrote towards the SSA in December 2018 requesting it to investigate.

Here's

Nevhutanda’s letter,
an affidavit by at this time suspended NLC corporation secretary Nompumelelo Nene supporting the request, and
the safety agency’s “private” findings and proposals.
Nevhutanda requested the SSA to analyze the position of NLC workers in the alleged leaking of knowledge, and Nene, in her affidavit discovered certain media and experiences that she claimed concerned these leaks.

From the letter outlining its conclusions, the SSA informed the NLC that even though protecting state details was “a authorized vital directed at protecting the sovereignty and integrity from the state” this only placed on correctly labeled data.

Although it didn't say so instantly, the SSA results implied that the allegedly leaked info didn't drop into this category.

Noticeably, the SSA designed it obvious that the need to guard state facts “will not reduce any specific from blowing the whistle on corruption or irregular or criminality”.

The SSA investigation identified the NLC information associated with the alleged breach was “sensitive and privileged in character, although not labeled in terms of the prescripts from the Bare minimum Data Protection Criteria (Miss out on)”.

“The leakage of your applicable delicate official NLC info towards the media does not pose a danger to nationwide safety,” the SSA mentioned, incorporating that the impression of the breaches was reputational.

The SSA report found “no proof of a factual and incriminating mother nature versus any of your suspected NLC staff that would be recognized from the information and details interrogated”.

Furthermore, it said that “the prevalence of alleged corruption and irregularities in the NLC and at its beneficiaries does provide enough motive to get these kinds of exposed from the media”.

Conspiracy promises
In 2020, Nevhutanda advised MPs in the course of a session of Parliament’s trade, marketplace and Levels of competition portfolio committee that there was “a conspiracy” wherein info “stolen” in the NLC was despatched into the US, where he claimed it absolutely was remaining sold to fund a smear campaign towards the NLC.

He was repeating very similar statements he experienced previously made in Parliament, which involved ad hominem assaults on GroundUp which reporter but was mindful not to call possibly.

“I arrived here In this particular August dwelling last year and documented to honourable associates that information regarding our beneficiaries has long been stolen and set in a single condition in the united states,” he informed MPs.

“We referred to as within the State Stability Agency to come look into the make any difference for the reason that we have been obtaining experiences that our facts is producing revenue for media platforms and journalists,” he explained. “There has been chat, obviously from just one source, a single media, that spoke A great deal about proactive-funding,” Nevhutanda stated (referring to GroundUp), but did not explain to MPs the SSA investigation were concluded almost a year earlier.

Proactive funding was at the guts of the looting of the lottery. It facet-stepped the traditional grant system. The NLC could by itself discover a task to fund and appoint a non-earnings organisation to oversee it.

After Nevhutanda to start with instructed Parliament in 2018 that he had requested the SSA to investigate the intended breach, the South African Countrywide Editors Forum issued a press release stating that his remarks mirrored “a particularly risky Mindset wherever the media is becoming blamed to the NLC’s inherent complications”.

“As opposed to investigating why thousands and thousands can not be accounted for, the NLC has instead tried to cast question over the integrity of the journalists involved and it has requested the SSA to research their sources.”

Proactive projects made secret
Stability flaws recognized inside the NLC grant funding method during the SSA’s investigation, show up to are already utilized being an excuse with the NLC to remove all proactive-funded assignments from its central grants system.

“In or about 21 December 2019, the classification of all pro-actively funding initiatives was heightened to ‘magic formula’ and assignments were being removed from the grant funding method and preserved manually beneath the custody of [Tsietsi Maselwa] the NLC’s [then] Deputy Information and facts Workplace, Executive Supervisor Lawful in order to safeguard [the] info,” Nene stated in her affidavit.

“There was lots of internal dialogue, with numerous backwards and forwards, about what to do to plug the alleged leaks”, a resource, who was in a very senior placement in the NLC at the time, informed GroundUp. “In the end, the choice was taken to eliminate every one of the proactive assignments through the program and Restrict use of a handful of people”.

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

Maselwa, who resigned in the NLC several several years ago, has actually been implicated in corruption involving lottery money. He gained R4.three-million from lottery money allocated to make a library and museum sophisticated in Kuruman (see Taung Cultural New music and Arts Expo) which he utilized to create a dwelling within an upmarket gated improvement in Pretoria. The house is one of many paid out for with lottery cash which were frozen following the Asset Forfeiture Unit acquired a preservation purchase in December 2022.

The politically-connected Nevhutanda, who was appointed as the NLC board chairperson by previous President Jacob Zuma in 2009 and was near significant-ups within the ANC leadership, former NLC previous Commissioner Thabang Mampane, and ex-chief functioning officer Phillemon Letwaba, have all been implicated inside the corruption which overwhelmed the NLC on their own look at.

Also implicated are former board users William Huma, who resigned following he was confronted with proof of how he had profited from corrupt lottery grants, and Muthuhadini Madzivhandila, who has since died.

Whenever a new administration, including the total board and government, took around at the NLC in late 2022 and early 2023, they found a “chaotic mess” while in the documentation regarding proactive funding, A great deal of which was paper-based mostly. Vital documents were being lacking. Data files held for safekeeping by document storage business Metrofile were signed out and by no means returned.

The NLC was capable to Recuperate copies of some lottovip documents from its Mimecast electronic mail archiving procedure as well as laptops of their assistants and aid personnel.

Information reports
In his 1 December 2018 letter, addressed to then SSA Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, Nevhutanda wrote: “The NLC has pointed out with grave problem possible facts safety breaches and the unauthorised use and/or dissemination of confidential information received on account of carrying out official features from the Fee by NLC employees. The actions are intended to undermine the integrity in the Commission although disrupting the powerful features [in the NLC] and leading to insurmountable reputational harm towards the Fee as being the custodian of non-public details entrusted to it by its beneficiaries.”

His ask for for that SSA to research was supported within an affidavit by suspended NLC firm secretary, Nomphumelelo Nene.

Nene is at present facing a disciplinary inquiry immediately after she was unsuccessful in legal action to put aside findings of irregular expenditure on her look at.

The goal of her affidavit, Nene mentioned, was “to history the occasions which transpired associated with information and facts security breaches on the Nationwide Lotteries Commission”.

She detailed several information stories which she claimed ended up the effects of such “breaches” (see at the end of this text).

Nene claimed that a whistle-blower approached the NLC alleging that considered one of its personnel, Sello Qhino, had “provided her labeled NLC Data and persistently inspired her to offer the information to GroundUp”.

Qhino, who blew the whistle over a number of dodgy lottery-funded assignments in Kuruman following makes an attempt to lift the issue internally have been disregarded, was subsequently fired.

Referring to an 18 November 2018 report in the Everyday Dispatch with regard to the misappropriation of Lottery funds, Nene stated that the NLC recognized then suspended Zintle Rungqu. She was an personnel from the NLC’s East London Business, who was the husband or wife and the mom of whistleblower Mzukise Makatse’s 3 youngsters.

Rungqu and Makatse think Rungqu was punished because Makatse blew the whistle. She was suspended and billed internally, Together with the NLC paying R470,000 on legal professionals to depict it, but was found not guilty and permitted to return to operate.

“The widespread Think about these articles or blog posts is that [they entail] labeled information associated with proactive funding initiatives,” Nene reported in her affidavit.

When Runqu was suspended, Makatse moved out from the household house to go ahead and take heat off her and his small children. Going through homelessness, he moved into an Workplace within an vacant factory belonging to a colleague.

Each Makatse and Qhino are taking part in an NLC reparation system meant to recognise the hurt many people endured for the arms from the NLC. Apologies and, in some instances, fiscal payment are predicted.

“Some persons were being definitely afflicted pretty negatively by this … This is really distressing,” NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz explained to the Each day Maverick previous yr.

“I met two or three these men and women. It was just so coronary heart-wrenching that their entire life are already turned upside down,” claimed Scholtz.

Amongst Those people she met ended up Qhino and Makatse.

Secure platform desired for whistleblowers
The SSA identified the absence at enough time of an appropriate channel for whistleblowers to report corruption led them to turn towards the media.

“Failure to have a devoted anti-corruption channel will end in workforce presenting such circumstances outside of the NLC,” the SSA stated in its findings.

“Offered the magnitude of corruption in state establishments, it stays vital that it ensures that the NLC complies with all security prescripts Which its emphasis is on making certain that unlawful and irregular carry out is sufficiently mitigated in opposition to and by ensuring an suitable channel for whistle-blowers to report untoward carry out without staying intimidated.”

It advised which the NLC establish a “Risk-free channel” for workers to provide information on any “untoward action” that may not avoid or discourage staff members from blowing the whistle. A whistle-blowers plan, according to the Safeguarded Disclosures Act 25 of 2000, can be a need.”

Media experiences Nene mentioned
A ten December 2017 report from the Limpopo Mirror about corruption and maladministration involving the Lottery-funded Vhembe Health and fitness and Conditioning Centre in Limpopo. GroundUp has labored carefully with Anton van Zyl, an investigative reporter and owner of your Limpopo Mirror, to reveal NLC corruption. “The write-up had things of knowledge not accessible in the general public domain, therefore raising worry on internal Facts security breaches. The allegations from the media had been independently investigated,” Nene claimed. “Nonetheless, staff members accountable for divulging categorized facts have yet for being recognized”;
A 28 January 2018 short article released by the Dally Dispatch “citing many allegations in the Limpopo Mirror post printed on ten December 2017 in addition to a new allegation concerning a former employee by the identify of Mzukisi Makatse. He was charged and summarily dismissed with the menace brought on into the organisation.”
A 16 November 2018 article from the Lowvelder in regards to the misappropriation of NLC resources involving a lottery-funded drug rehabilitation centre. GroundUp has documented how, Despite receiving R27-million in lottery grants, the rehab has not been concluded. “The Lowvelder post contained categorized facts when it comes to NLC policy, elevating even more fears of interior information security breaches,” Nene said in her affidavit. “The prima facie proof with regards to these allegations didn't warrant an impartial Investigation, even so [it] highlighted the heightened details safety risks throughout the NLC.”
A 22 November 2018 GroundUp expose a couple of dodgy R27.5-million grant to Denzhe Most important Treatment, a hijacked NPO. Nene stated GroundUp experienced confirmed in its Tale that it was dependant on leaked NLC paperwork. This was Regardless of the NLC rejecting a PAIA (Promotion of Use of Info) ask for for details with regards to the venture, she explained