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Minister hands evidence in lottery corruption probe to police

A dossier of evidence gathered by forensic investigators involving a dodgy R27.5m lottery grant has been handed to the police.
A dossier of evidence gathered by forensic investigators involving a dodgy R27.5m lottery grant has been handed to the police.
Image: STEPHANIE LLOYD

A dossier of evidence gathered by forensic investigators appointed by trade, industry and competition (DTIC) minister Ebrahim Patel involving a dodgy R27.5m lottery grant has been handed to the police.

This was revealed by DTIC director-general Lionel October during a meeting of parliament’s trade, industry and competition portfolio committee on Wednesday.

The dossier contains evidence of what happened to lottery funds given to Denzhe Primary Care to build a drug rehabilitation centre near Pretoria. The centre has never been completed and over R20m is unaccounted for.

Investigations into three other lottery-funded funded projects totalling an additional R26m are nearing completion, October told the committee.

October said the DTIC had received legal advice not to distribute the full report and to limit the amount of information made available to the public “to allow law enforcement to complete their investigation”.

October said the Denzhe report had been completed in August and handed to the minister.

“He has accepted the recommendations and we are now in the next stage. We have now handed it to law enforcement to investigate,” he said.

The other investigations, said October, were expected to be completed by September 15.

October supplied some details of the projects being investigated and the amounts, but did not name people involved. The projects he named were Denzhe Primary Care, Zibsimanzi, Life for Impact in the 21st Century, and I am Made for God’s Glory.

The projects are linked to Lottopreneur lawyer Lesley Ramulifho and National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Philemon Letwaba, who has been on suspension since March.

In the case of Denzhe Primary care, a “hijacked NPO” was used to apply for lottery funds to build a drug rehabilitation centre near Pretoria.

GroundUp has revealed how Ramjulifho used Denzhe as his personal ATM, and also used R5m of the Denzhe grant towards payment of a luxury home on an exclusive gated estate near Pretoria.

GroundUp earlier revealed how Letwaba’s brother, Johannes “Joe” Letwaba, was a director of Upbrand Properties at the time that the company signed a R15m contract to build the rehab.

After Letwaba’s involvement was exposed by GroundUp, he resigned and a first cousin of the Letwaba brothers, Kenneth Tomoletso Sithole, became the company’s sole director.

Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi’s former PA, Gina Pieters, took the stand at the state capture inquiry on September 2 2020. She laid out how Bosasa executives made sure that flowers, hampers and other “surprises” would be sent to then minister of environmental affairs Nomvula Mokonyane and her PA, Sandy Thomas.

Zibsimanzi is a non-profit shelf company that was awarded R4.8m rand by the lottery within six months of Letwaba’s second wife, Rebotile Malomane, being appointed as a director. It is unclear what this project involved.

Life for Impact in the 21st Century received R10.1m from the lottery’s arts, culture and national heritage sector just weeks after being bought off the shelf and new directors appointed. Themba Mabundza, one of the newly-appointed directors, is also a director of Zibsimanzi.

I Am Made for God’s Glory (IAM4GG), an NPO controlled by Ramulifho, received an R11m grant for a sports stadium in Limpopo. GroundUp has been unable to find proof that it was ever built. Leaked bank statements have revealed how R2m flowed from IAM4GG to Upbrand.

October said: “To guide the department through both the disciplinary cases and the civil and criminal investigations that will take place, we have been advised to appoint a legal firm to guide the department. We are waiting for the state legal advisor to finalise the appointment of the law firm.

“But the forensic report has already been handed over to the South African Police Service for investigation,” October said, as he wrapped up his brief presentation.

“That investigation must be independent and we must respect the rights of everyone and allow due process to take place. I have been given legal advice to give no further indication of what the evidence is that may have been uncovered [or] what the findings are.”

This article was originally published by GroundUp.

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