<\/p>\n
The South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) failed to turn up to a portfolio committee meeting to report back on their investigations into lottery-related corruption.<\/p>\n
High-powered delegations from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which is investigating over R2 billion in looted lottery funding, gave presentations on their progress in holding those involved to account.<\/p>\n
The NPA explained some of the reasons for long delays in prosecutions.<\/p>\n
The meeting was originally set for 29 January, but postponed to 24 March and scheduled on parliament\u2019s programme on 2 February, yet the SAPS and the Hawks failed to appear or offer an apology or explanation.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/p>\n
ProEthics told to pay back lottery money [Jan 2026]
\nLate Tsotsi star\u2019s house, bought with lottery funds, frozen by Special Tribunal [Dec 2025]<\/p>\n
Andre Hermans, secretary of the Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee, told members of parliament (MPs) that he had tried to contact the SAPS to confirm its attendance but \u201ccould not get hold of them\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some MPs have called for Acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia and National Police Commissioner General Sehlahle Masemola to be summoned to appear before the committee to explain their absence and the delays in finalising investigations into lottery corruption.<\/p>\n
The NPA placed much of the blame for the delays at the door of the SAPS.<\/p>\n
A key reason is a failure by the Hawks to appoint forensic accountants in almost all cases of complicated lottery fraud and corruption they are investigating. The role of these accountants is to guide investigators and also analyse the financial evidence collected.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/p>\n
Lottery corruption: SIU investigation hamstrung by red tape [Jul 2025]
\nNPA missing in action on lottery corruption [May 2025]\u00a0
\nRamaphosa strident on lottery probe [Apr 2025]<\/p>\n
The Hawks is an elite, independent division within the SAPS.<\/p>\n
Andy Mothibi, until recently head of the SIU and now head of the NPA, said it is the SAPS\u2019s duty to appoint the auditors.<\/p>\n
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The NPA\u2019s Nkebe Kanyane said the Hawks had promised that a firm of forensic accountants would be appointed by the end of April.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a firm that was identified a year ago, but because of internal supply chain management issues [at the Hawks], that appointment lagged and was not finalised,\u201d Kanyane told MPs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have now been given undertakings that by April it will be done, and we are hoping that will be so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, SAPS head of communications, did not respond to a WhatsApp message from GroundUp asking why the police had failed to pitch for the meeting and why forensic accountants had not yet been appointed.<\/p>\n
Listen\/read: Can the new NPA leader restore confidence in prosecutions? [Jan 2026]<\/p>\n
Other reasons for the delay in finalising cases, Mothibi said, were court applications to stop the inclusion of properties in preservation orders granted by the Special Tribunal, as well as a review application brought by former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board chair Alfred Nevhutanda, challenging President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s authorisation of the SIU\u2019s probe into corruption involving the NLC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll interlocutory applications aimed at obstructing asset forfeiture proceedings will be opposed with determination and resolve,\u201d Mothibi told MPs.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/p>\n
Former lottery chair challenges Ramaphosa\u2019s investigation [Dec 2025]
\nEx lottery board member to pay back R21m in stolen grant funds [Aug 2025]
\nRamaphosa extends SIU probe into lottery corruption [Oct 2025]<\/p>\n
The Hawks are currently investigating 14 cases of fraud, corruption, racketeering and money laundering, which were referred for investigation by the SIU, which does not have prosecutorial powers.<\/p>\n
The SIU said it is investigating hundreds of cases worth over R2 billion involving dodgy lottery funding. But only one person has been convicted and jailed for lottery-related fraud.<\/p>\n
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Of 25 criminal referrals made by the SIU to the NPA, which, in turn refers these to the SAPS to investigate, only two cases are currently in court.<\/p>\n
Both were investigated by the Northern Cape division of the Hawks and are before courts in Kimberley.<\/p>\n
Several MPs expressed their frustration at the slow rate of prosecutions since lottery investigation began in earnest in 2020, after a Presidential Proclamation mandating the SIU to investigate lottery corruption.<\/p>\n
But while the SIU\u2019s investigations and the freezing of assets bought with lottery money have made progress, the Hawks have dragged their feet, and the NPA has largely been missing in action.<\/p>\n
ACDP MP Wayne Thring said lottery corruption was exposed years ago, and \u201cthis lag in terms of time in prosecutions\u201d gave the people involved \u201ctime to engage in \u2018Stalingrad-type tactics\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also gave \u201cthe guilty time to disappear or to relocate\u201d.<\/p>\n
DA MP Toby Chance added: \u201cThings are not moving ahead at the required pace. Individuals are disappearing, and the evidence is being played around with, and this presents a huge problem. What occurred is being referred to as money laundering, but it\u2019s not, it\u2019s just blatant theft.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instruments of corruption<\/p>\n
MPs heard how non-profit entities and trusts related to kingpins involved in the looting of 44 projects \u2013 many of them hijacked from their lawful owners \u2013 were used to launder hundreds of millions of rands intended to uplift poor people and support marginalised communities.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/p>\n
Special Tribunal freezes luxury home of lottery \u2018kingpin\u2019 [Jun 2025]
\nLottery commission did nothing to stop 4 000 \u2018delinquents\u2019 from getting grant funding [May 2025]
\nLuxury properties seized in new lottery crackdown [Aug 2024]<\/p>\n
In a majority of cases, these companies are related to former NLC executives and board members, their families and cronies, as well as lower-level NLC staff, MPs were told.<\/p>\n
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In other cases, senior NLC staff and board members received kickback payments in the form of payments from grants, as well as contributions towards luxury vehicles and homes, farms and properties from the recipients of these grants.<\/p>\n
Among those who benefited in this way were scandal-ridden former NLC board chair Alfred Nevhutanda; former NLC Chief Operations Officer Philemon Letwaba, who resigned under a cloud in 2022; former NLC Commissioner Thabang Mampane, who resigned just weeks before her term was due to end; and former NLC board member William Huma.<\/p>\n
NLC acting head Leonard Lekgetho explained the modus operandi of the lottery corruption, explaining that it included:<\/p>\n
The exploitation of the now-discontinued \u201cproactive funding\u201d, which allowed the NLC Board to fund projects and select non-profit companies to oversee them without requiring a grant application. This led to wide-scale looting under the previous NLC administration;
\nCollusion by NLC officials and some board members with non-profit companies to siphon money from lottery grants, often using hijacked companies;
\nInadequate project management;
\nA lack of monitoring and evaluation;
\nIneffective auditing of projects;
\n\u201cGeneral maladministration\u201d in the approval of grants; and
\nSystems not designed to detect abuse.<\/p>\n
Lekgetho said that two phases of the SIU\u2019s investigation have been completed,with a report on the first phase \u2013involving R279.7 million \u2013 submitted to President Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
A report on the second phase, involving R246.6 million, has also been completed and will be submitted to the President soon.<\/p>\n
Read: Former NLC executive loses bid for access to his R1.7m pension [Feb 2025]<\/p>\n
A third phase of the investigation, involving grants totalling R950.9 million, is expected to be completed by 30 June, while a final phase involving 690 matters so far, the value of which the SIU is still quantifying, is expected to be completed by 31 March 2027.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 GroundUp. This article was first published here.<\/p>\n
#Hawks #SAPS #snub #parliament #hearing #lottery #corruption<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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