Conflicts of interest and incomplete projects: How Lottery money is being spent

Undeclared conflicts of interest and incomplete or shoddy construction characterise many projects funded by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC). Our research uncovers what is possibly only a fraction of the questionable grants involving Lottery money.

Over the next week, we will publish stories describing how companies linked to Phillemon Letwaba, the NLC’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), are involved in Lottery deals involving tens of millions of rands.

This follows our publication of previous stories exposing corruption and incompetence involving NLC projects. Letwaba’s brother was implicated in one such project.

Several strategies underpin these projects:

First, money is directed to them making use of a 2015 amendment to the Lotteries Act that allows the Minister of Trade and Industry, the NLC or its board to identify projects to be funded without receiving applications. This is known as proactive funding. The problem with proactive funding is that there is often no rigorous prior scrutiny of the projects awarded money by NLC officials.

Second, the projects are often based in towns far from large cities, where reporters are less likely to venture.

Third, the appointment of service providers for multimillion-rand construction projects, like construction and engineering companies, is left to the recipients of the funding. In contrast to government departments, these projects often do not have transparent tender processes. The NLC’s own audits seldom check for conflicts of interest on the projects themselves. This is despite regulations of the Lotteries Act requiring organisations that receive grants to procure “goods or services” using a “transparent and competitive process”.

“The processes of the NLC are such that funded entities independently source services from the market to achieve whatever it is that they have been funded for,” the NLC’s communications head Ndivhuho Mafela said in an email in response to questions. “Technically, therefore, the NLC would not be aware of information about such service providers.”

And, often, the proactive funding is given to non-profit companies with no track record. These are formed by accountants or attorneys and made tax compliant. They are then sold “off-the-shelf” and ready for business, with the original directors who set them up resigning and new directors being appointed.

Kuruman’s Lottery-funded projects

For our latest stories we visited Kuruman in the Northern Cape to investigate three different projects: an old age home, a drug rehabilitation centre and a library and museum meant to celebrate the life and work of sangoma, author and African storyteller Credo Mutwa.

Almost R60 million was granted to the three projects but two are still under construction almost two years after they received Lottery funding, while the museum has a single exhibit and the library’s shelves are empty.

Responding to a question about the delays in construction, NLC spokesperson Ndivhuho Mafela said: “It is in the nature of construction that you have unplanned delays which impact on the overall completion of the facilities. This is however reported regularly by our engineers and we are satisfied with the progress on all the facilities that we are building. We have however indicated that all projects should be handed over to the communities this year.”

Links to NLC’s COO

PKT Consulting Engineers, which is involved in the construction of Lethabong Old Age, and the recently completed Credo Mutwa Museum and Library, has links to NLC Chief Operating Officer Phillemon Letwaba and members of his family.

Letwaba, his wife Daisy, and his brother Johannes, as well as their father Oupa, who has since died, were all directors of PKT before they resigned their directorships on March 1, 2017.

On the same day that the Letwabas resigned, Themba Mabundza was appointed as the sole director of PKT. Mabundza, 37, is an active director in 54 different companies across a wide spectrum of industries.

Two of the companies of which he is a director have received grants from the Lottery. One, Life for Impact in the 21st Century, was awarded R8 million on 19 April 2017, and a further R2,106,800 just over a month later on 31 May 2017, a total of R10,106,800. The grants were made via the NLC’s Arts, Culture and Natural Heritage sector.

The first payment to Life for Impact was made about six weeks after the purchase of an existing non-profit company, which appears to have been bought “off-the-shelf” as a tax compliant entity. The three original directors resigned and Mabundza, Ivonne Sibongile Kheswa and Patricia Dikeledi Nkosi were then appointed as directors on 3 March 2017.

Zibsimanzi, a second off-the-shelf company where Mabundza is a director, received a R4.8 million grant from the NLC’s Sports sector on 21 November 2017. The grant was made about eight months after Mabundza, Rebotile Mashaba and Judith Nonhlanhla were appointed directors on 4 May 2017.

It is unclear what projects the funds granted to Life for Impact and Zibsimanzi were for. A search of both turned up no NLC-funded or any other projects that they are – or have been – involved in. The NLC has not responded to our query asking for details.

Kaone Wethu, a second company involved in the construction of the museum and old age home, also has links to business associates of Letwaba. One of its former directors, Keneilwe Constance Maboa, is either still an active director or has resigned some of her directorships in at least five companies linked to Letwaba’s family. These include Mosadi Ditshabeng Modjadji, where she is a still a co-director with Letwaba’s younger brother, Thabo. She was also a co-director of Ironbridge Traveling Agency and Events and Redtaq with Thabo Letwaba before they resigned in March and June respectively.

The current listed director of Kaone Wethu is Karabo Charles Sithole, a former director of PKT, Redtaq, and Ironbridge. These companies are or were at one time linked to Letwaba or members of his family.

Phillemon Letwaba served as the NLC’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) before being appointed COO in 2017. For at least two years he was simultaneously both CFO and the NLC’s acting executive on all grants.

A leaked document compiled three years ago by a concerned high-up NLC whistleblower emphasises the power Letwaba wielded through holding these joint positions. The whistleblower also raised the potential for “conflicts of interest” and the “manipulation” of grants

“The sudden urgency of approving so many proactive funding applicants whilst long-standing grant agreements are not being finalised for payment are worrisome.”

In November last year, GroundUp revealed how Upbrand Properties, a company in which Letwaba’s brother, Johannes, was the sole director, signed a R15 million contract to build a rehabilitation centre near Pretoria. Although Johannes Letwaba subsequently resigned his directorship, Companies and Intellectual Property Commission records confirm that he was a director at the time of the signing of the multimillion-rand contract.

Despite this, the NLC issued a statement clearing its COO of any conflict of interest. “The NLC follows strict prescribed processes and continually encourages its employees to disclose matters of conflict of interest where applicable. It has since engaged individuals who may have been highlighted in some of the issues raised around the implementation and funding of the project [the rehab] and is satisfied with explanations provided.”

The NLC has also released a statement saying it received a clean audit for 2018/19.

Letwaba’s wife, Daisy, and Melanie du Plessis are directors of a company called Signature Kitchen Design that was registered on 20 September 2016. Du Plessis is the girlfriend of a controversial lawyer who is associated with companies and organisations that have received tens of millions of rands in Lottery funding.

In response to questions about Letwaba, the NLC wrote: “We have been advised by the official that he has referred the matter to his lawyers but he has denied any conflict of interest on this matter.”

Letwaba’s lawyer later said in an email that Letwaba had been given insufficient time to respond to our questions, but nevertheless said his client had nothing further to add to the NLC’s responses. (We gave Letwaba ample time. He has had sight of the questions sent to the NLC for several days. Despite this we gave him an additional day after receiving this letter. We have received no response.)

His wife also did not respond to questions we sent to Letwaba’s lawyer for her.

After becoming aware of this writer’s visit to Kuruman, the NLC distributed a media statement claiming that I had approached Lottery-funded projects “requesting sensitive information”.

And, despite the fact that I had identified myself to all the people I spoke to in Kuruman as a journalist on assignment for GroundUp, the NLC alleged that I was falsely “claiming to be from a mine that is working in partnership with the NLC”.

The NLC statement added: “We encourage beneficiaries who have been approached in this manner or by anybody claiming to be a representative of the NLC to report this to the organisation’s fraud line.”

The South African Editors Forum subsequently issued a statement condemning the NLC’s media release.

Themba Mabundza failed to respond to questions sent to his official PKT email address.

Melanie du Plessis did not respond to questions sent to her via WhatsApp.

We will publish part two of this series on Monday.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.