<\/p>\n
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has budgeted to spend over R230.6 million in legal fees until the end of the 2029 financial year to fight \u201cfrivolous interdicts\u201d and recover stolen funds.<\/p>\n
This eye-watering budget, which the NLC says is a \u201cnecessary cost of rooting out corruption\u201d, was revealed during a presentation of its\u00a02026\/27 annual performance plan\u00a0in parliament on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Read:
Ramaphosa extends SIU probe into lottery corruption
National Lottery whistleblowers denied financial compensation<\/p>\n
In her\u00a0presentation\u00a0to the Trade, Industry and Competition Portfolio Committee, NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz told MPs: \u201cA significant portion of our current litigation load is proactive, not reactive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the NLC collaborates with law enforcement, such as the SIU [Special Investigating Unit], to recover misappropriated public funds, freeze assets, and terminate irregular contracts, the natural pushback from implicated parties is aggressive litigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working closely with all stakeholders to expedite these matters, accepting this temporary spike in legal risk as the necessary cost of rooting out corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pushback<\/strong><\/p>\n The NLC was\u00a0overwhelmed by corruption\u00a0under its previous leadership, with the SIU previously telling parliament that it was investigating lottery-related corruption of over R2 billion.<\/p>\n Preservation orders granted by the Special Tribunal over luxury homes, farms, vehicles and other assets paid for with misappropriated lottery funds have been met with legal pushback by those involved.<\/p>\n This includes litigation by former NLC board chair Alfred Nevhutanda, who has asked the high court\u00a0to review and set aside President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s authorisation of an SIU probe into corruption at the NLC.<\/p>\n Nevhutanda has been\u00a0implicated\u00a0in benefitting from misappropriated lottery funding.<\/p>\n Dual purpose of legal action<\/strong><\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe have ringfenced a robust legal budget specifically dedicated to defending the NLC against frivolous interdicts and pursuing the recovery of stolen funds,\u201d Scholtz told MPs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working closely with all stakeholders to expedite these matters, accepting this temporary spike in legal risk as the necessary cost of rooting out corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic scandals and cases of corruption give rise to elongated litigation processes. This not only delays justice but also weakens public trust in organisations that provide social development services.<\/p>\n Read: NPA missing in action on lottery corruption<\/p>\n \u201cLengthy legal battles can disrupt operations, reduce revenue, and lead to significant costs for the organisation, further leading to budget constraints or delays in resource allocation.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, investigation processes can be seen as anti-corruption measures as they highlight the inefficiencies of current systems in place,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cThese can then be improved through the integration of more reliable and transparent systems.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Radical transparency\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The reputational damage suffered by the NLC in recent years has been profound, Scholtz told MPs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile our internal systems have improved, public perception naturally lags behind operational reality.\u201d<\/p>\n To mitigate this, the NLC has implemented a policy of \u201cradical transparency\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis includes publishing the details of all grant beneficiaries, the amounts awarded, and the specific projects funded,\u201d Scholtz said.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cFurthermore, we are actively publicising our successful consequence management efforts, demonstrating to civil society that the era of impunity has ended.\u201d<\/p>\n Priority funding<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The NLC\u2019s performance plan lists five areas for priority funding:<\/p>\n The NLC has not yet reported on its 2025\/2026 financial year, but in 2024\/2025 it distributed R988 million to good causes.<\/p>\n There were complaints about the slow assessment of grant applications. But the NLC put this down to new processes introduced to combat fraud and corruption, as well as too few distributing agency members to adjudicate applications.<\/p>\n Read: Lottery commission did nothing to stop 4 000 \u2018delinquents\u2019 from getting grant funding<\/p>\n Since then, 10 new distributing agency members have been appointed, speeding up the adjudication process.<\/p>\n Read:\u00a0Tau appoints 10 new lottery grant assessors after year-long delay<\/p>\n The NLC has\u00a0budgeted to distribute R2.083 billion\u00a0in 2026\/27, 72% of its budget to good causes from its share of a projected R2.91 billion from ticket sales.<\/p>\n According to its annual reports, the NLC\u2019s share of ticket sales has increased from R1.66 billion in 2023 to R1.96 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 GroundUp. This article was first published here.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #Lottery #budgets #R230m #legal #fees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has budgeted to spend over R230.6 million in legal fees until the end of the 2029 financial year to fight \u201cfrivolous interdicts\u201d and recover stolen… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11281,203,989,1079,11282],"class_list":["post-9225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-budgets","tag-fees","tag-legal","tag-lottery","tag-r230m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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