Ramaphosa Remains Steadfast on the Lotteries Corruption Probe
Former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) chair Alfred Nevhutanda has filed a lawsuit to stop the investigation, but President Cyril Ramaphosa is standing by his decision to allow a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to look into claims of wrongdoing at the NLC.
Ramaphosa recently filed an affidavit with the Pretoria High Court objecting to Nevhutanda’s attempt to revoke the 2020 proclamation that permitted the SIU to look into allegations of misconduct at the commission from January 2014 to October 2020, which includes Nevhutanda’s tenure as head of the commission.
Nevhutanda contends that the investigation’s scope is excessively broad and that the NLC does not meet the SIU Act’s requirements for state institutions handling public funds. Additionally, he claims that Ramaphosa did not give the matter enough thought before approving it.
Ramaphosa, however, rejected these arguments, stating that there was no legal justification for overturning the declaration. According to him, the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) and the trust it is affiliated with are state entities since they oversee public funds. As is customary, he clarified, the Justice Minister examined the SIU’s request and found evidence of illegal grant distributions and claims of unlawful benefits for officials’ relatives.
Read Also: Google Reverses Gambling Ad Ban in Lagos State, Nigeria
As part of the inquiry, the SIU has already conserved assets totaling R344 million, including a house in Pretoria worth R27 million that was purportedly bought using lottery money that was misappropriated. Nevhutanda is accused of trying to sabotage the investigation in order to recover confiscated property and evade possible legal repercussions.
Another party that has opposed Nevhutanda’s appeal is the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP). Juliana Rabaji-Rasethaba, head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, explained in an affidavit that preservation orders acquired by the NDPP function independently of the SIU investigation and would be enforceable regardless of the court’s ruling on Ramaphosa’s proclamation.
Last year, Judge Nelisa Mali of the Pretoria High Court, who was considering the National Prosecuting Authority’s application for the final forfeitures of the assets to the state, issued an order delaying it until an unspecified date so that the Nevhutanda application could be determined.
