Lottery Commission extends reparations to staff

R20-million has been ringfenced by the National Lotteries Commission to pay reparations to staff and employees who blew the whistle on corruption and “suffered harm” as a result under the previous administration. Illustration: Lisa Nelson

• The National Lotteries Commission has extended its reparations process to include current staff who experienced “hurt” and former employees who “suffered harm” under its previous management.
• At least 12 people have given evidence to an independent panel.
• Those applying for reparation include former staff who were forced out after blowing the whistle on corruption, heads of non-profit companies who were threatened after speaking out, and people whose vehicles were torched.
• Minister Parks Tau told Parliament that R20-million has been ringfenced for individuals, with compensation for the first group of applicants expected to be approved by the NLC board this month after almost a year of delays.

A National Lotteries Commission (NLC) reparations process has been extended to include current staff who experienced “hurt” and former employees who “suffered harm” under the organisation’s previous administration.

So far, at least a dozen people have given evidence of what was done to them to a two-person independent panel set up to advise the NLC board. They include former staff who were hounded out of the NLC after blowing the whistle on corruption, and one who was shortchanged on a Labour Court unfair dismissal award. Others who have applied for reparation include the heads of non-profit companies who were threatened and defamed after speaking out about how their organisations were hijacked and fraudulently used to apply for lottery grants.

In two cases, vehicles belonging to people who exposed corruption involving dodgy multimillion-rand lottery grants were set alight by arsonists. In one case, at least 30 geese, peacocks, ducks, swans and chickens were also slaughtered in a late-night panga attack. The arson attacks and the slaughter of the birds were seen as a warning to silence whistleblowers.

In a June 2023 interview with GroundUp, NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz said the reparations process, which was then still in planning, “needs to be lawful and authentic”.

“We need to make amends within the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act). The idea is to say sorry in a way that is meaningful and for everyone. My original proposal was for staff only. But communities have also been affected. They have been hurt. We cannot just say it is business as usual,” she said.

The process was set in motion almost a year ago. After several delays, compensation for the first group of applicants is expected to be approved by the NLC board this month.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau told Parliament in April that R20-million had been “ringfenced for individual reparative measures”.

Tau, responding in April to a question from MK party MP Des van Rooyen, said the funds would come from the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund. The National Treasury had been informed about the ringfenced R20-million “as part of the NLC surplus”, said Tau.

Responding to another parliamentary question from Van Rooyen, also in April, Tau said the NLC board’s reparations committee would have the final say on compensation. This committee consists of Beryl Ferguson and Lionel October, both NLC board members, and Dr M. Mosia, an independent member of the NLC board’s Human Capital Management and Social Ethics Committee.

Details of the processes being followed were laid out in a response to a written parliamentary question from DA MP Toby Chance in December last year.

The period covered for eligibility for applications for reparation by current and former staff is 1 January 2017 to 31 January 2023.

In the case of current staff, the NLC is not offering any financial compensation.

Instead, it says in its letter inviting applications: “The NLC is mindful of the hurt and trying circumstances that some of our colleagues went through during the previous administration. The reparative initiatives aim to do right and assist, as far as possible, with supporting the healing journey of those impacted.”

The NLC said all staff applications would be considered by independent advisors who, in the case of valid claims, will make “non-financial award recommendations to the NLC for consideration, as to the appropriate reparative measures to be applied”.

The letter sent to former employees does not say whether they would be eligible for financial compensation.

Explaining the almost year-long delay, Scholtz said in response to questions from GroundUp that the NLC was “going through a rigorous independent assurance process”.

“The reparations process is a restorative process, which may be pecuniary and non-pecuniary in nature”, she said.

Scholz said the process was “well advanced” and should be finalised soon.

“It is important to note that the reparations process is a voluntary and non-legal process. Where possible, in order to ensure the NLC complies with, amongst other things, the PFMA, and that the implementation of the reparations process is lawful, fruitless and wasteful expenditure must be avoided, and non-pecuniary reparations should therefore be made, where possible.

DA MP Toby Chance, who has been monitoring the process, said, “Unfortunately, the reparations process has been bogged down by endless red tape.”

“After pressure I put on the NLC chair and commissioner in Parliament, they were forced to concede that internal processes [for reparation] were deemed insufficient to make the payments, even after consulting the Auditor General and SARS.”

“So an independent service provider had to be appointed to manage the process, delaying it for months. It now appears the reparations will only be finalised by the end of September”.

Chance called on Scholtz to ensure that reparations payments, if deemed necessary, “are processed expeditiously to avoid placing unnecessary financial and emotional burdens on those affected.”

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