The man who helped expose lottery corruption has died

Ado Krige, who died on 29 January, supplied key documents and information that blew the corruption at the NLC wide open. Photo from his House Regeneration website (fair use)

It was late on a Friday afternoon in 2018, and Anton van Zyl, the publisher and owner of the Limpopo Mirror, was about to knock off for the weekend when the phone rang.

The caller was Ado Krige, the owner of a drug rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Pretoria. Krige had seen a story in the Mirror that mentioned dodgy Pretoria attorney Lesley Ramulifho, and he wanted to know if Van Zyl had any more information about him.

The Mirror had recently reported about a grant to Denzhe Primary Care, a long-dormant non-profit organisation in a rural Limpopo village. It later transpired that Ramulifho had hijacked Denzhe, which he resurrected to act as a facilitator for a multi-million-rand lottery-funded project.

Krige’s call led to an investigation by the Limpopo Mirror and GroundUp, culminating in the publication of a story using key documents and information supplied by Krige. It exposed a dodgy R20-million lottery grant in 2017 for the development of a drug rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Pretoria, on the premises of Krige’s existing, faith-based rehab centre.

GroundUp’s story revealed the involvement of Ramulifho, and also how a company connected to the then NLC chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, and his brother, Johannes, benefited from the rehab project.

Using bank statements and documents leaked to Krige, which he shared with GroundUp, we subsequently exposed how Ramulifho spent at least R5-million of the Denzhe grant to buy a luxury home on a gated estate in Pretoria.

He also spent funds meant for the rehab to pay for two Ocean Basket franchises, meals at fancy restaurants, high-end interior decor, and work on his Porsche, among other things.

The NLC ultimately pumped over R27.5-million into the project, although a quantity surveyor retained by Krige found that the construction of the rehab was shabby and the value of the work done was only R4.8-million.

Subsequent quotes estimated that it would cost about R11-million to properly complete the rehab.

Krige died on 29 January, a few months before his 80th birthday. But the chain of events he set in motion continues.

Ignited a storm

The information in the initial GroundUp story ignited a storm in Parliament. It blew lingering suspicions of corruption involving senior staff and board members at the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), as well as their family members and cronies, wide open.

It also led former Trade Industry and Competition (TIC) Minister Ebrahim Patel to order an investigation into corruption at the NLC. The findings implicated Letwaba and Ramulifho to suspect lottery grants running into tens of millions of rands.

Lionel October, a former TIC director general and now a member of the NLC’s board, told me in an interview last year: “You published the story just before the Portfolio Committee meeting [of Parliament’s Trade, Industry and Committee] and that caused a rupture. The NLC was supposed to report back [on its performance], but the committee [instead] started asking them about Denzhe. So that set things off for us as well.”

R300-million for rehabs

Krige and his wife met Ramulifho and his then-girlfriend, Melanie du Plessis, through mutual acquaintances who attended their church.

Claiming he represented the NLC, Ramulifho told Krige that the Commission had set aside R300-million to fund drug rehabilitation centers around South Africa. Four were ultimately funded; two in Pretoria, one in Kuruman in the Northern Cape, and another in Mbombela in Mpumalanga. Of these, only Krige’s, which was shoddily built and will need millions of rands to fix, is operational.

Krige emailed then-NLC Commissioner Charlotte Mampane in April 2018 to alert her to serious problems with the project and to inform her that his relationship with Ramulifho had broken down. Nothing was done.

In July 2018, he also complained to the police in an affidavit, alleging there was “corruption, fraud, embezzlement of public funds” involving the Denzhe grant. This also went nowhere.

Instead, in December 2018, Ramulfiho sued Krige and his wife Annatjie for R17-million for “unlawful enrichment”, making untrue and highly defamatory claims about him. The matter also went nowhere, although Krige spent “a fortune” on lawyers to represent him in the matter, which never went to court.

In February 2019, he met with the former NLC Board chairperson, Alfred Nevhutanda, to complain about the corruption involving the Denzhe grant. A while later, he emailed the NLC’s former legal head, complaining that no action had been taken following his complaint.

Biker and drug dealer

Krige, a former biker, spent a month in jail after being arrested for drug dealing when he was younger, before becoming a police informer and helping to expose drug dealers and their networks.

He never made a secret of his chequered past.

“[I] was an infantry instructor at the beginning of the bush war, left, and got involved in the SA drug scene,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

“Later involved in corporate management and marketing in several major companies, thereafter another spell in drug smuggling and corporate marketing.”

In his 2018 affidavit accompanying his complaint to the police, he said that he was arrested for dealing in drugs and kept in solitary confinement for 34 days.

“During this time, I had a vision from Christ and afterwards told the investigating officer my story and handed in 28 pages of information on the network I operated with. I spent the next three-and-a-half years working as an informant for the South African Narcotics Bureau (SANAB). I was given a suspended sentence in the months after my arrest and never sent to prison, although I pleaded guilty.”

Krige refused to give in to litigation, threats, and intimidation to scare him off. His bakkie was destroyed in an arson attack, and dozens of chickens, ducks, geese and peacocks living on the grounds of the rehab were slaughtered in a late-night attack.

Krige’s business took a serious hit because the delayed and poor construction of the rehab meant that they were only able to accommodate a limited number of people for treatment. And, a second rehab for women that he owned was burned down.

When he had used up his savings, he was forced to sell his farm in Limpopo, where he lived, to support his business, and himself and his wife.

The strain resulted in him falling seriously ill, and he was hospitalised for some time. Most days, he was in such pain that he was unable to get out of bed.

The last time I spoke to him, he was so weak that his voice was barely audible, but he said his faith was keeping him going.

Krige leaves his wife, Annatjie, and children, Michael, Warren, Darryl, Louis, Jan, Izak and Annelet.

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