{"id":164352,"date":"2020-09-02T18:08:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/evidence-lottery-probe-handed-police\/"},"modified":"2020-09-02T18:08:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:08:28","slug":"patel-hands-evidence-in-lottery-probe-over-to-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/patel-hands-evidence-in-lottery-probe-over-to-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Patel hands evidence in lottery probe over to police"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/Graphics\/octobergrab.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/patel-hands-evidence-in-lottery-probe-over-to-police.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">This graphic from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/october_presentation_to_parliament.pdf\">presentation<\/a> to Parliament by Lionel October, the Director-General of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, shows which organisations connected to National Lotteries Commission COO Phillemon Letwaba are under investigation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Evidence into the investigation into dodgy Lottery grants has been handed to police, parliament was told yesterday<\/li>\n<li>Department of Trade, Industry and Competition director-general Lionel October said the dossier contained information on funds given to Denzhe Primary Care to build a drug rehabilitation centre near Pretoria which was never completed<\/li>\n<li>Investigations into other projects would be completed this month, he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>A dossier of evidence gathered by forensic investigators appointed by Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) minister Ebrahim Patel involving a dodgy R27.5 million rand Lottery grant has been handed to the police.<\/p>\n<p>This was <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1YeuzDFyt81knG6Zi9Dpx4rtavtmLh9xU\/view?usp=sharing\">revealed<\/a> by DTIC director-general Lionel October during a meeting of Parliament\u2019s Trade, Industry and Competition Portfolio Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The dossier contains evidence of what happened to Lottery funds given to Denzhe Primary Care to build a drug rehabilitation centre near Pretoria. The centre has <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2NNpiBi\">never been completed<\/a> and over R20 million is unaccounted for.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations into three other Lottery-funded funded projects totalling an additional R26 million are nearing completion, October told the committee.<\/p>\n<p>October said the DTIC had received legal advice not to distribute the full report and to limit the amount of information made available to the public \u201cto allow law enforcement to complete their investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>October said the Denzhe report had been completed in August and handed to the minister. \u201cHe has accepted the recommendations and we are now in the next stage. We have now handed it to law enforcement to investigate,\u201d he said. The other investigations, said October, were expected to be completed by 15 September.<\/p>\n<p>October supplied some details of the projects being investigated and the amounts but did not name people involved. The projects he named were Denzhe Primary Care, Zibsimanzi, Life for Impact in the 21st Century, and I am Made for God\u2019s Glory.<\/p>\n<p>The projects are linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/lawyer-lottery-and-millions-dodgy-grants\/\">Lottopreneur lawyer Lesley Ramulifho<\/a> and National Lotteries Commission Chief Operating Officer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesouthafrican.com\/news\/national-lottery-commission-coo-takes-voluntary-leave-2020\/\">Phillemon Letwaba<\/a>, who has been on suspension since March.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of Denzhe Primary care, a \u201chijacked NPO\u201d was used to apply for Lotttery funds to build a drug rehabilitation centre near Pretoria. GroundUp has revealed how Ramjulifho used Denzhe as his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/how-lawyer-used-lottery-funded-project-his-personal-atm\/\">personal ATM<\/a>, and also used R5 million of the Denzhe grant towards payment of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/how-buy-your-dream-house-using-public-money\/\">luxury home<\/a> on an exclusive gated estate near Pretoria. GroundUp earlier revealed how Letwaba\u2019s brother, Johannes \u201cJoe\u201d Letwaba, was a director of Upbrand Properties at the time that the company signed a R15 million contract to build the rehab. After Letwaba\u2019s involvement was exposed by GroundUp, he resigned and a first cousin of the Letwaba brothers, Kenneth Tomoletso Sithole, became the company\u2019s sole director.<\/p>\n<p>Zibsimanzi is a non-profit <a href=\"https:\/\/ptycompanyregistration.co.za\/get-a-shelf-company\/\">shelf company<\/a> that was awarded R4.8 million rand by the Lottery within six months of Letwaba\u2019s second wife, Rebotile Malomane, being appointed as a director. It is unclear what this project involved.<\/p>\n<p>Life for Impact in the 21st Century <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/dodgy-shelf-companies-cash-lottery-millions\/\">received R10.1 million<\/a> from the Lottery\u2019s Arts, Culture and National Heritage sector just weeks after being bought off the shelf and new directors appointed. Themba Mabundza, one of the newly-appointed directors, is also a director of Zibsimanzi.<\/p>\n<p>I Am Made for God\u2019s Glory (IAM4GG), an NPO controlled by Ramulifho, received an R11 million grant for a sports stadium in Limpopo. GroundUp has been unable to find proof that it was ever built. Leaked bank statements have revealed how R2 millionn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/money-lottery-goes-cousin-national-lotteries-commission-boss\/\">flowed from IAM4GG to <\/a>Upbrand.<\/p>\n<p>October said: \u201cTo guide the department through both the disciplinary cases and the civil and criminal investigations that will take place we have been advised to appoint a legal firm to guide the department. We are waiting for the State Legal Advisor to finalise the appointment of the law firm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the forensic report has already been handed over to the South African Police Services for investigation,\u201d October said, as he wrapped up his brief presentation. \u201cThat investigation must be independent and we must respect the rights of everyone and allow due process to take place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been given legal advice to give no further indication of what the evidence is that may have been uncovered [or] what the findings are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2020 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/patel-hands-evidence-in-lottery-probe-over-to-police.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This graphic from a presentation to Parliament by Lionel October, the Director-General of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, shows which organisations connected to National Lotteries Commission COO Phillemon Letwaba are under investigation. Evidence into the investigation into dodgy Lottery grants has been handed to police, parliament was told yesterday Department of Trade, Industry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-164352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/patel-hands-evidence-in-lottery-probe-over-to-police.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}