South Africa: Terry Pheto’s Home Might Go Up for Public sale to Recuperate Lottery Funds

Quite a few properties belonging to Lotteries Fee executives, their family and cronies frozen by court docket order

• Tens of millions in properties and belongings, together with actress Terry Pheto’s luxurious dwelling, have been frozen by court docket order.
• The Asset Forfeiture Unit is looking for to recuperate thousands and thousands misappropriated from Lottery grants.
• GroundUp has reliably learnt that the Particular Investigating Unit has “made legal referrals” to the NPA involving Nationwide Lotteries Fee board members, their family and cronies.
• Freezing of belongings is “just the start” of a Lottery clean-up, says supply with data of the investigations.

Tsotsi and Daring and the Stunning star Terry Pheto’s three-storey dwelling was constructed utilizing R3-million of lottery grant cash meant for an “initiation programme”.

The home has been connected, it was revealed on Friday, after the Nationwide Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) went to court docket to freeze varied belongings implicated in fraud involving thousands and thousands in Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) grants.

Pheto’s dwelling cash got here from a R20.2-million grant given by the NLC to a dodgy non-profit organisation, Zibsimode. The home is in upmarket Bryanston.

Pheto issued a press release on Twitter over the weekend denying that she had benefited from Lottery funds. “I deny any involvement within the alleged scheme. I additionally had no prior data of an utility to acquire a preservation order towards me,” she stated.

Pheto stated she would “cooperate totally with this investigation in an open and clear method”.

Zibsimode, a shelf company, was bought on 9 Might 2017. The corporate was then awarded two grants in fast succession: R16.2-million on 30 Might 2017, simply 21 days after new administrators had been appointed, and an extra R4-million on 6 July 2017.

A second luxurious home in Bryanston, belonging to Upbrand Properties, which has been on the coronary heart of the looting of thousands and thousands of rands from the Lottery, was additionally included within the preservation order.

Upbrand is intently linked to former Nationwide Lotteries Fee chief operation officer Phillemon Letwaba and members of his household (see here and here).

Cupboard minister Fikile Mbalula and his spouse initially made a R5.6-million cash offer for the house. However they dropped out and the home was then purchased by Upbrand, with an affiliate of Mbula’s performing because the intermediary, on similar phrases to people who the couple had supplied.

The Bryanston houses are two of 9 properties, together with luxurious homes and a farm, frozen after a secret utility by the Nationwide Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was granted. The appliance was heard by Gauteng division Deputy Choose President Aubrey Ledwaba in his chambers final Friday morning.

Additionally frozen had been two Ocean Basket franchises and a farm belonging to dodgy Pretoria lawyer Lesley Ramulifho, whose non-profits he controls have benefited from at the very least R60-million in Lottery grants. A top-of-the-range BMW 420i belonging to former NLC chief working officer Phillemon Letwaba was additionally included within the order.

In whole, the belongings that had been frozen had been valued at over R25-million, in line with a statement issued by the SIU. A number of of the frozen properties are linked to Letwaba, a supply with data of the matter informed GroundUp.

Among the many different properties seized had been the North West golf estate home of former NLC Commissioner Thabang Mampane, which was purchased with Lottery cash. Additionally frozen by the court docket was the posh Pretoria “nation property” dwelling of Letwaba’s spouse, who also benefited from Lottery funds.

Advocate Andy Mothibi, the pinnacle of the SIU, informed the Commerce, Trade and Competitors Parliamentary Portfolio Committee in September that his unit was investigating over R1.4-billion in dodgy Lottery grants.

Minister Ebrahim Patel informed the committee assembly that the “syndicates accountable for looting public [Lottery] funds had been in a position to depend on a community {of professional} corporations that enabled the monies to be redirected”, and that these syndicates had used “refined strategies to cowl up their actions and deflect consideration”.

Attorneys had helped facilitate the looting, he stated, and each Patel and the SIU stated that these legal professionals could be reported to their skilled our bodies for motion to be taken, together with attainable disbarment.

The order was granted to the NPA’s Assets Forfeiture Unit (AFU), primarily based on investigations by the SIU, which has been probing Lottery corruption ever since President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation in November 2020 authorising the investigation.

The AFU grew to become concerned after Willie Hofmeyr, a former head of the unit and now an NLC board member, pushed for them to hitch the investigation. The SIU is simply mandated to recuperate cash misplaced by way of corruption, whereas the AFU has prosecutorial powers.

“The following step shall be to use for a forfeiture order,” NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana stated in a media assertion. “As soon as a forfeiture order is granted, the properties shall be bought at public public sale, and proceeds returned to the NLC.”

Mahanjana stated that Lottery grants had been used to purchase luxurious properties “for the good thing about staff of the NLC and members of the non-profit organisations and/or their members of the family/mates.”

“In most situations, the properties had been registered within the names of the entities and never within the identify of personal people. Some entities masqueraded as building corporations however didn’t do building (or little or no) and had been successfully used as cash laundering autos to obtain kickbacks from non-profit organisations who obtained grants from the NLC,” she stated.

GroundUp has reliably realized that the SIU has “made legal referrals” to the NPA involving Letwaba, Ramulifho, Mampane, Nevhutanda, former board member William Huma, who benefited hugely from Lottery grants, and Mashudu Shandukani, who’s included in Friday’s order, and his spouse, Fairly. Shandukani’s firm was the primary contractor on a Lottery-funded undertaking to build a school in Limpopo, the place thousands and thousands of rands had been misappropriated.

Film and TV star

Pheto has loved a stellar career as an actress. A spotlight was starring in Tsotsi, which won multiple awards, together with an Oscar for finest overseas movie in 2005. She additionally landed a component within the well-liked American soapie, The Daring and the Stunning. She additionally starred in a film referred to as How to Steal 2 Million.

Pheto, who lives in the home together with her husband, is an in depth buddy of the previous NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevutanda, whose scandal-ridden term resulted in November 2020.

One of many administrators of Zibsimode is Rudzani Nemaungani, a pastor in Nevhutanda’s Higher Grace International Church. Zibsimode was awarded over R20-million from the NLC’s Arts and Tradition sector for an “initiation programme” within the 2017/18 monetary yr.

A doc leaked to GroundUp in 2018 revealed how a whistleblower raised a purple flag concerning the undertaking. Regardless of this, the non-profit organisation obtained an extra R2-million within the 2021/22 monetary yr from the NLC’s charities sector. It’s not recognized what the second grant was for.

A Promotion of Entry to Data Act (PAIA) utility in 2018 requesting details about the Zibsimode grant was refused by the NLC on the grounds that it was certain by legislation to guard the privateness of its grant recipients.

Pheto’s sister, Dimakatso, is a director of Zibsibix, a non-profit firm that obtained R5-million from the NLC in 2018/19. Particulars of what this funding was used for usually are not recognized. The corporate was purchased “off-the-shelf” on 11 July 2018, after which new administrators, together with Pheto’s sister, had been appointed. The grant was paid out someday between July and 31 March 2019, the top of the NLC’s monetary yr.

Properties frozen

A number of folks and entities had been named within the order obtained by the AFU. Listed below are key particulars:

• Collins Tshisimba (see here) is a central determine in a number of dodgy Lottery-funded initiatives, together with one to build a school in Vuwani in Limpopo, the place thousands and thousands had been misappropriated. Two townhouses in Centurion belonging to him and his spouse, allegedly paid for with Lottery funds, have been frozen.
• Tshisimba is married to Fulufhelo Promise Kharivhe (see here), sole director of Thwale Entrance, a non-profit organisation, which was allegedly used to launder thousands and thousands in looted Lottery grants to NPOs. Thwale paid R1.9-million into Huma’s dwelling bond in April 2018. An quantity of R200,000 was additionally transferred into Thwala Entrance (Pty) Ltd’s checking account by The Message, a non-profit organisation that obtained a R1.6-million grant within the 2018/19 monetary yr.
• AO Residence Belief, represented by Mashudu Shandukani, was the primary contractor that constructed the Vuwani college. Shandukani’s magnificent dwelling was featured on Top Billing just a few years in the past. It’s not recognized if this dwelling was amongst these frozen by the order.
• Rasemate Household Belief, of which Letwaba’s second spouse is a trustee, owns a luxurious dwelling on the Midstream Property close to Pretoria that was frozen. She lives in the home with the couple’s two youngsters.
• The Mojakgomo Household Belief, of which Mampane, her husband, and two grownup youngsters are beneficiaries, owns the house within the Pecanwood Golf Property in Hartebeesfontein, in North West, wherein she and her husband dwell.
• A farm is frozen that belongs to lawyer Lesley Ramulifho, who has been amongst these at the heart of the looting.
• Terry Pheto’s dwelling in Bryanston is frozen.
• The second Bryanston dwelling, owned by Upbrand Properties Belief, represented by director Sthembiso Jim Skosana, has been frozen.
• Two Ocean Basket franchises at Carnival Metropolis and Carnival Mall in Gauteng have been frozen. These had been purchased by Ramulifho utilizing cash from a grant to build a drug rehabilitation centre. Ramulifho admitted to “borrowing” the cash from the organisation (in breach of the phrases of the grant) however claimed that he had repaid it. He used forged proof of payments and doctored bank statements to “show” this in to date unsuccessful litigation to power GroundUp to take away tales about him from its web site. GroundUp went to court docket after the Authorized Observe Council (LPC) rejected its criticism towards Ramulifho. The matter will come before a judge within the Johannesburg Excessive Court docket on 10 November;
• A home owned by the Simply Cuban Belief, which is related to Letwaba, is frozen.

Nicely-informed sources have confirmed that investigations into additional issues involving the abuse of Lottery funds are nearing completion and extra purposes to freeze belongings shall be introduced earlier than the courts quickly.

“The freezing of belongings is just the start,” stated a supply with data of the investigations, who requested to stay nameless as a result of they aren’t mandated to talk to the media.

“There’s a dedication from everybody concerned to scrub up the Lottery and recuperate cash stolen by way of corruption. We is not going to relaxation till the cash is recovered and the folks concerned are held to account,” the supply stated.