The Lottery and its discontents

Here are articles on who plays the South African Lottery, how the Lottery money is distributed, and dodgy dealings by the National Lotteries Commission and its recipients.

How the Lottery funded an R8.5 million Facebook page

Director of Harmonica Jazz Foundation was a member of a National Lotteries Commission distributing agency

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Feature | 16 March 2020

Lottery officials fibbed about clean audits

NLC received a qualified audit for the 2017/18 financial year

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News | 13 March 2020

National Lotteries Commission refuses to release list of beneficiaries

NLC chairperson claims people are making money off the beneficiary list

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News | 10 March 2020

Lottery supporters march against journalists who exposed corruption

Memo calls on Ebrahim Patel not to suspend the National Lottery Commission’s board

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News | 6 March 2020

Zibsifusion: a case study of Lottery corruption

Toilets were promised to schools with pit latrines, but never delivered

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Feature | 3 March 2020

The Lottery and the missing minstrel museum

Six years ago the Lottery gave R13 million for a museum which still does not exist

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Feature | 21 February 2020

Pressure grows for Parliament to “get to the bottom” of accusations against Lottery

“The NLC’s game plan is to bully and threaten anyone who looks to make allegations or substantiate allegations against it,” says MP

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News | 5 February 2020

Lottery threatens criminal charges against journalists

GroundUp accused of breaching law by revealing details of grants

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News | 3 February 2020

Lottery paid millions of rands to COO’s wife’s company

Companies linked to Phillemon Letwaba’s friends and family have received huge amounts of Lottery money

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Feature | 28 January 2020

Member of Parliament calls for Lottery board to be fired

NLC investigating itself is like “turkeys voting for Christmas”, says MP in letter to minister Patel

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Brief | 23 January 2020

Money from Lottery goes to cousin of National Lotteries Commission boss

Only a fraction of the R11 million grant appears to have gone to its intended purpose

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Feature | 20 January 2020

Is the National Lotteries Commission countering media exposés with advertising?

It has massively increased spending on advertorials over the past few years

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Analysis | 17 December 2019

Top Lottery executives coin it

R19 million a year paid to seven people

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Brief | 9 December 2019

Mystery Limpopo outfit gets multi-million rand Lottery contract for old age home in Mpumalanga

Facility, which is unfinished after two years, is in Lottery COO’s village

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Feature | 6 December 2019

Tata ma (almost no) chance: Household income of most lottery players is less than R10,000 per month

UNISA survey gives insight into who plays the Lotto and why

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Feature | 2 December 2019

The Lottery and the mystery multi-million rand boxing arena

A Gauteng company with no track record in construction was contracted to build a facility in the small Eastern Cape town of Storms River

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Feature | 28 November 2019