Ramaphosa Expands SIU Investigation into Lottery Corruption

President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially prolonged a 2020 proclamation that allowed the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to look into corruption surrounding lottery grants, 18 months following the SIU’s initial request.

The updated proclamation broadens its scope to encompass fraud and corruption related to procurement by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC).

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Despite the SIU discovering numerous instances of irregularities through tip-offs and independent inquiries initiated by the NLC, it faced limitations in pursuing investigations due to the strict conditions of the original proclamation.

The new proclamation will cover offenses occurring until 10 October 2025, the date of its gazetting. In contrast, the original proclamation pertained to offenses from 1 January 2014 to 20 October 2020.

However, its provisions are not open-ended and specify particular procurement cases that the SIU is authorized to investigate.

Notably excluded are various accounting and auditing firms that facilitated the misappropriation of lottery funds.

NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz stated that the NLC has already looked into some questionable cases not included in the proclamation extension and reported them to the “relevant authorities.”

“We will also forward those reports to the SIU,” she added.

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The majority of the procurement issues that the SIU is now authorized to investigate stem from an investigation conducted by the audit firm TSU Investigations Services in October 2023, commissioned by the NLC.

TSU revealed fraud, corruption, and significant breaches of “procurement processes,” amounting to hundreds of millions of rands. This report has significantly influenced disciplinary actions involving NLC personnel.

The SIU’s request has been bogged down by bureaucratic hurdles, remaining with the Department of Justice and Correctional Services for nearly 18 months.

Additionally, there have been claims of political interference causing the prolonged delay.

A backlog of SIU proclamation applications had accumulated over the years. However, in the last year, the pace at which proclamations have been granted has increased, even while the SIU’s NLC request remained unresolved.

Since the SIU’s extension request was filed in April 2024, there have been three different Ministers of Justice: it was submitted during Ronald Lamola’s tenure. GroundUp reported on a law firm he led, Ndobela Lamola Inc., being implicated in lottery irregularities.

Lamola was succeeded by Thembi Simelane, who was later moved to the Constitutional Development position after only seven months due to her involvement in a R500,000 “loan” scandal related to the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank in 2016.

She was replaced by Mmamoloko Kubayi, who eventually signed the extension ten months post her December 2024 appointment.

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• The selection process of attorney firms and legal practitioners. In 2023, then Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel informed parliament that legal files – involving documentation from litigation worth tens of millions of rands – had disappeared. He also mentioned that efforts to obtain details from the involved lawyers regarding their work for the NLC had been unsuccessful.
• The inclusion of law firm Maluks in the NLC’s legal panel. Maluks had previously litigated against Patel multiple times as part of a campaign of “lawfare” by the former management and board of the NLC.
• A tender awarded to Neo Africa to investigate a potential hacking incident that never occurred.
• Expenses related to accommodation and travel incurred by the previous NLC administration for individuals involved in reviewing the recently granted lottery operator license.
• The placement of advertorials in the Sunday World newspaper. The NLC invested tens of millions of rands to counter reporting, primarily by GroundUp, revealing corruption related to non-profit grants. The largest beneficiary of this increased advertising expenditure was Sunday World, which received around R24.7 million in three years (2020-2022) from the NLC for advertisements and advertorials.
• A wellness initiative for NLC employees, mainly conducted by Workforce Healthcare (Pty) Ltd.
• The hiring of ProEthics to provide services related to ethics.
• A R1.7 million “flashmob activation” that never took place, organized by MSG Group Sales and Elsiscope Digital Solutions.

NLC Commissioner Scholz expressed her support for the gazetting of the SIU’s investigation extension into “maladministration within the organization.”

“This advancement reflects our dedication to transparency and good governance. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the SIU to tackle any irregularities and ensure our operations adhere to the highest standards of integrity and accountability,” she stated.

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© 2025 GroundUp. This article was first published here.

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