GroundUp reports that a disciplinary hearing into the conduct of the suspended National Lotteries Commission (NLC) Chief Operating Officer began in Pretoria this week.

Phillemon Letwaba is accused of money laundering and abusing his position to enrich himself and his family. The disciplinary hearing began on Tuesday and is expected to last at least eight days. Letwaba is accused of using front companies to funnel money from non-profit companies that received multimillion grants from the NLC to companies controlled by himself and his family. Much of this was from grants to non-profit companies via proactive funding. Proactive funding allows the Minister of Trade and Industry, who has oversight of the Lottery, or the NLC in consultation with its board, to fund “worthy causes” without receiving an application. There is a proviso that research must be done before proactive funding is awarded. Letwaba was suspended in October last year after a recommendation from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which has been probing corruption at the NLC following a Presidential Proclamation by President Cyril Ramphosa in October 2020. Letwaba’s suspension came just weeks after he returned to work after a 17-month “leave of absence”. His absence had been to allow audit firm SkX, which was appointed by the NLC to investigate alleged corruption, to do its work. Letwaba returned to work even though the SkX report had not been finalised.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Raymond Joseph at GroundUp

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