DA rejects ANC's recommendation for NLC chairperson

12 March 2021    

At a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition on the 13th of March 2021, the African National Congress (ANC) chose to actively disregard a submission by The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) which cited serious concerns about the candidacy of Dr Muthuhadini Madzivhandila for National Lotteries Commission Chairperson (NLC).

In their report OUTA noted that “Dr Madzivhandila has been serving on the board of the NLC from 1 April 2017 to present. This is the same board that has observed allegations of corruption and maladministration pertaining to the NLC proactive funding model”.

The cited the following concerns:
- He is subject to several criminal complaints by OUTA and other organisations as a result of his membership of the board.
- The Special Investigative Unit’s (SIU) investigation into serious maladministration and unlawful appropriation of expenditure of public money and property by NLC coincides with his tenure on the board.
- He was the director of a non-profit company which received R900 000 from the NLC and that it needed to be determined whether or not he had declared this prior to his appointment to the board.
- He failed to address alleged irregularities at the NLC despite holding a senior position in the organisation.
- The appointment of Dr. Madzivhandila as the chairperson of the NLC “would be a disservice not only to the NLC itself, but to the public”

In addition, the DA laid criminal charges against the entire NLC board for failing to release their list of grant beneficiaries for the 2018-2019 financial year and the Covid-19 relief fund, of which Dr. Madzivhandila was a member.

It is particularly concerning, that he held the position of Human Capital, Social and Ethics Chairperson and served as a member of the governance, audit and risk and regulatory committees yet he expects the public to believe he had no hand in covering up alleged corruption at the NLC.

Despite these very serious allegations, the ANC chose to stick with their man. Insiders have informed the DA that this is due to an intensive lobbying operation conducted with ANC members of the portfolio committee by NLC.

Despite having been impressed by the interviews of other two shortlisted candidates, Mr. Terry Tselane and Dr. Barney Pityana, the DA has chosen to reject the committee’s recommendation of three names to Minister Ebrahim Patel on account of Dr. Madzivhandila’s inclusion on the shortlist.

We now urge Minister Patel to make the right choice and appoint either Mr. Tselane or Dr. Pityana in the interests of fixing what is so glaringly wrong at the NLC.
Failure to do so will only end in more misery for the most vulnerable in our society, who have been deprived of much-needed funding by the Lottery Looters.

Issued by Mat Cuthbert, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, 12 March 2021