South Africa: Hundreds of thousands to Be Spent to Full Deserted Lottery-Funded Tasks

Engineers to be paid immediately to complete multi-million rand infrastructure tasks

• The Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) has allotted almost R65-million to complete Lottery-funded tasks the place tens of tens of millions of rands had been looted.
• New funds are to be paid on to engineers commissioned by the NLC as a substitute of dodgy non-profit firms.
• Over R240-million in grants has now been allotted to those tasks, which embrace 4 previous age houses, a drug rehab and a supposed “boxing enviornment”.
• The tasks are all presently beneath investigation by the Particular Investigating Unit and the Hawks.
• The dodgy firms and their administrators might be blacklisted by the NLC.

Deserted infrastructure tasks funded by the Nationwide Lotteries Fee, together with 4 old-age houses and a drug rehabilitation centre, will lastly be accomplished, years after tens of tens of millions of rands supposed for his or her building had been looted.

The Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) has allotted almost R65-million to complete a number of multi-million rand infrastructure tasks that had been left incomplete after Lottery grants went lacking.

These funds might be paid on to the engineering corporations commissioned by the NLC as a substitute of the non-profit firms (NPCs) that had been initially presupposed to fund the tasks.

Particulars of further funding for the unfinished tasks, that are all presently being investigated by the Particular Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Hawks, are included within the NLC’s latest annual report, which was offered to Parliament by its new board final week.

Over R240-million, together with the newest grants, has now been allotted for these tasks in want of completion.

Most of those unfinished tasks initially acquired “proactive” funding, which was at the heart of the looting of the Lottery and has now been suspended. Proactive funding allowed the NLC to determine tasks to fund with out first receiving an utility, and to determine and appoint an NPC to run the undertaking. This resulted in dodgy, usually hijacked, NPCs with no expertise of building being put accountable for multi-million rand tasks which had been by no means accomplished.

NLC spokesperson Ndivhuho Mafela advised GroundUp that “the NLC took a call to supervise the completion of those tasks immediately by way of its personal panel of engineers. The Particular Investigating Unit was engaged on completion of the tasks and didn’t oppose such motion.”

The extra funds weren’t paid to any of the non-profit firms that had been initially funded. The NLC’s annual report identifies the brand new funding with the names of the organisations initially funded, however that is just for reporting functions.

As an alternative, the newest grants might be “managed” by the engineers tasked with finishing building of the assorted tasks.

Ending the job

The unfinished tasks which have acquired further funding are:

• A drug rehabilitation centre in Kuruman within the Northern Cape, which is able to obtain R14-million for its completion. Since 2016, Abrina, a non-profit firm, has acquired R34.3-million from the NLC. A forensic investigation discovered that solely R5.3-million of the R22-million initially allotted was spent on the centre;
• An old-age house in Dumbe, close to Paulpietersburg in KwaZulu-Natal, which is able to obtain R13-million for its completion. An NPC referred to as Ubusu acquired a complete of R36.8-million in grants to construct this unfinished undertaking;
• An old-age home in Marapyane in Mpumalanga, which has now been allotted an extra R11-million to finish its building. Matiene Group Centre, a Limpopo primarily based NPO, was initially allotted R23.7-million. A few of the cash supposed for this undertaking was used for the development of ex-NLC chief working officer Phillemon Letwaba’s home close by;
• An old-age house in North West, which has been allotted an extra R8.9-million for its completion. WAR_RNA, a hijacked non-profit firm, was given over R20-million in Lottery grants for this undertaking;
• A drug rehab in Soshanguve, which has been given a further R8.6-million to finish building of the ability. Zibsilor initially acquired over R20.7-million;
• A communal or multi-sport centre in Storms River, initially funded as a “boxing enviornment”, which has been allotted a further R4.3-million. Nunnovation, a Gauteng-based NPO, was given nearly R40-million to construct the supposed boxing enviornment; and
• R5-million in further funds had been allotted to an unknown undertaking initially run by Home of Mercy, one in every of a number of dodgy Lottery-funded non-profits run by TV pastor Joyline Josamu and members of her household and shut associates. It has beforehand acquired R2.3-million.

Past restore

The NLC has determined to not full an old-age home in Maila Village in Limpopo, the place Mushumo Ushavha Zwanda, a hijacked NPO, was used to steal millions of rands from the Lottery.

Grants price R27.4-million had been used to start constructing the old-age house, however the NLC determined that it’s past restore. When GroundUp visited the house earlier this yr, the buildings had been in a really poor state. There have been no roofs, doorways or home windows, and the buildings had been deserted to the weather and left to rot.

No further funding was allotted for Denzhe Primary Care, a hijacked NPO, which acquired R27.5-million for the development of a drug rehab close to Pretoria. SkX estimated that solely R4.8-million of this was spent on the rehab’s building.

“Home of Mercy and Denzhe are on the coronary heart of the SIU investigation and we want to await the result of that course of,” mentioned Mafela.

Response

Mat Cuthbert, the Democratic Alliance shadow minister for Commerce, Business and Competitors, who performed a key function in Parliament in exposing the rot on the NLC, welcomed the choice to finish the tasks.

“We’re glad that [the NLC] took the suitable steps to make sure that these organisations weren’t given the chance to misuse any extra lottery funding and we’re hopeful that the brand new management on the entity will proceed to behave prudently on this regard,” he mentioned.

Cleansing up corruption

The NLC’s annual report ought to have been accomplished final yr however was delayed due to misstatements and other issues discovered within the monetary statements. It was lastly accomplished in February this yr, when the Auditor-Normal issued a certified audit opinion, after intensive back-and-forth with the NLC, which had contested among the findings.

Mafela advised GroundUp that the NLC was within the means of inserting Zibsilor, Matiene, Nunnovation, WAR_RNA, Abrina and Ubusu and their administrators on its inside delinquency listing in order that no additional funding can be superior to those organisations or their administrators.

“The NLC is presently reviewing all pro-actively funded tasks for the 2021/22 monetary yr. Any irregularities recognized might be referred to legislation enforcement businesses and restoration of funds will ensue,” mentioned Mafela.