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The biggest beneficiary of National Lottery Commission (NLC) funding

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Lottery beneficiaries include corrupt ANC municipalities and R500m to SASCOC

Dear MyPE

A reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question has revealed that the biggest beneficiary of National Lottery Commission (NLC) funding between 2010 and 2018, has received nearly R500 million.

The NLC’s four biggest beneficiaries over the period include:

  1. South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee – R490 498 123.00
  2. SA Sports Trust – R128 910 864
  3. SA College Principals Organisation R62 690 00.00
  4. The Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association – R54 393 058.00

My colleague, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mat Cuthbert MP, has been placing pressure on the NLC to come clean and provide the list of beneficiaries for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years.

These efforts have been vindicated as clearly this reply by Trade and Industry Minister, Ebrahim Patel, demonstrates why the NLC has been so reluctant to release its lists.

In addition to the above funding, R 39 635 325.00 was given to three Municipalities, for unknown reasons. All municipalities in South Africa receive conditional grants from National Treasury on an annual basis to cover service delivery and infrastructure development projects at local level. It is therefore surprising why the NLC would entertain grant applications from municipalities, in what is clearly an unethical practice of ‘double-dipping’ on public funds.

Of primary concern is that, the three municipalities that have received funding over the past 10 years are among some of the country’s most corrupt and worst run:

  1. Polokwane Municipality – R15 000 000.00
  2. Umzinyathi District Municipality – R14 635 325.00
  3. Umhlathuze Municipality – R10 000 000.00

Another concern is the huge grant of R14 947 326.00 million to one school in the North West, Mankuroane Tech & Comm High School. South Africa has a high number of schools in need of significant investment to their crumbling infrastructure. Cognisant of this challenge, it does not make sense for the NLC to make such a huge grant to one school.

This money can be better spent by breaking it into small grants and disbursing it to several schools across the country with severe shortages of critical infrastructure.

Similarly, the R63 million that was given to the South African College Principals Organisation, a professional association of school principals, is very steep for such a niche organisation that only provides workshops and professional development courses for its members.

The question that rises is how does the NLC justify making such a multi-million grant when media is littered with stories of hunger alleviation organisations at local level struggling to feed poor families due to limited financial resources.

The funding of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association, of over R54 million also raises concerns and the NLC will have to come clean in justifying this massive grant while many NGOs across the country assisting people in desperate need of assistance are unfunded.

The DA will request an urgent meeting of Parliament’s portfolio committee on trade and industry with Minister Patel and the NLC in order for them to come clean on the rationale for this massive amount of money to questionable organizations and municipalities.

The public must also know how all this money was actually spent and what benefit the larger community received.

The DA will also continue to place pressure on the NLC to come clean and release the full list of beneficiaries for the last two years.

Millions of South Africans play the lotto every week, thinking that their money is going to be allocated to needy causes – not vanity projects.

Regards

Mike Waters MP
DA Member of Parliament

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Port Elizabethan

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