DA legal opinion finds that National Lotteries Commission has acted unlawfully by failing to disclose beneficiaries to Parliament

8 July 2020

Note to Editors: Please find attached legal opinion on the National Lotteries Commissions.

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) presented its own legal opinion regarding the ongoing refusal by the National Lotteries Commission’s (NLC) to disclose grant beneficiaries to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition.

The DA has taken the extraordinary step of soliciting our own legal opinion after the Committee Chairperson, Duma Nkosi, had failed to present a legal opinion solicited from Parliament’s legal advisor, despite it having been requested 28 days ago by him.

The DA, on the other hand, was able to secure this legal opinion from a senior Advocate within 36 hours.

Notwithstanding Nkosi’s failure to ensure that the NLC is held to account,  ANC MPs in the committee fought tooth and nail to remove the item from the meeting’s agenda. Not one member of the opposition parties supported this move.

The legal opinion is devastating for the NLC and ANC in concluding that firstly, “It is clear that the Lotteries Act does not preclude the disclosure by the Commission to Parliament of the names of Fund beneficiaries. It is more likely than not that the Act requires it. This position is not changed by the Disclosures Act, PAIA, PAJA or regulation 8 of the distribution agency regulations” and;

Secondly, “This means that if the Commission refuses to disclose the names of Fund beneficiaries to Parliament on the basis that it is prohibited from doing so, it has acted unlawfully because it has committed an error of law.”

This is an indictment on the conduct of both the NLC’s board as well as the Portfolio Committee Chairperson’s and ANC’s efforts to stifle the release of this matter of urgent public interest when it is so blatantly obvious that Parliament can demand the identities of these beneficiaries.

In lieu of our legal opinion and the ensuing events in the committee today, the DA will write to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Thandi Modise, through our Chief Whip, Natasha Mazzone, to investigate the conduct of the Mr Nkosi’s conduct, as well as the conduct of Parliament’s legal division in their failure to provide this legal opinion to ensure MP’s can do their job of oversight.

Moreover, we will be laying criminal charges in the coming day’s against the National Lotteries Commission for failing to carry out their duties and responsibilities as per the National Lotteries Act as well as the relevant access to information laws such as the Disclosures Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

The DA will not give up its fight in making sure that South Africans know how their money is being spent as we seek to untangle the web of corruption that engulfed the NLC, which is now being actively protected by Members of Parliament.

Issued by Mat Cuthbert, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and Economic Development, 8 July 2020