- Properties and belongings, together with actress Terry Pheto’s luxurious residence, have been frozen by courtroom order.
- The Asset Forfeiture Unit is in search of to recuperate tens of millions misappropriated from Lottery grants.
- GroundUp has reliably learnt that the Special Investigating Unit has “made criminal referrals” to the NPA involving National Lotteries Commission board members, their kinfolk and cronies.
- Freezing of belongings is “just the beginning” of a Lottery clean-up, says supply with data of the investigations.
Tsotsi and Bold and the Beautiful star Terry Pheto’s three-storey residence was constructed utilizing R3 million of lottery grant cash meant for an “initiation programme”.
The home has been connected, it was revealed on Friday, after the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) went to courtroom to freeze varied belongings implicated in fraud involving tens of millions in National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grants.
Pheto’s residence cash got here from a R20.2 million grant given by the NLC to a dodgy non-profit organisation, Zibsimode. The home is in upmarket Bryanston.
Pheto issued an announcement on Twitter over the weekend denying that she had benefited from Lottery funds. “I deny any involvement in the alleged scheme. I also had no prior knowledge of an application to obtain a preservation order against me,” she mentioned.
— Terry Pheto (@TerryPheto) November 5, 2022
Pheto mentioned she would “cooperate fully with this investigation in an open and transparent manner”.
Zibsimode, a shelf firm, was bought on 9 May 2017. The firm was then awarded two grants in fast succession: R16.2 million on 30 May 2017, simply 21 days after new administrators have been appointed, and an additional R4 million on 6 July 2017.
A second luxurious home in Bryanston, belonging to Upbrand Properties, which has been on the coronary heart of the looting of tens of millions of rands from the Lottery, was additionally included within the preservation order.
Upbrand is intently linked to former National Lotteries Commission chief operation officer Phillemon Letwaba and members of his household (see here and here).
Read:
Lottery’s Phillemon Letwaba resigns beneath a cloud
Former Lottery boss really useful R4.8m grant for his spouse’s firm
Former Lottery exec’s pension frozen as corruption probe hots up
Cabinet minister Fikile Mbalula and his spouse initially made a R5.6 million money supply for the house. But they dropped out and the home was then purchased by Upbrand, with an affiliate of Mbula’s performing because the intermediary, on similar phrases to people who the couple had provided.
The Bryanston houses are two of 9 properties, together with luxurious homes and a farm, frozen after a secret software by the NPA was granted. The software was heard by Gauteng division Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba in his chambers final Friday morning.
Also frozen have been two Ocean Basket franchises and a farm belonging to Pretoria lawyer Lesley Ramulifho, whose non-profits he controls have benefited from no less than R60 million in Lottery grants. A top-of-the-range BMW 420i belonging to former NLC chief working officer Phillemon Letwaba was additionally included within the order.
In whole, the belongings that have been frozen have been valued at over R25 million, in response to a statement issued by the SIU. Several of the frozen properties are linked to Letwaba, a supply with data of the matter instructed GroundUp.
Frozen: Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission Thabang Mampane’s residence on the Pecanwood golf property. Image: Pecanwood web site
Among the opposite properties seized have been the North West golf estate home of former NLC Commissioner Thabang Mampane, which was purchased with Lottery cash.
Read: Lottery boss resigns
Also frozen by the courtroom was the posh Pretoria “country estate” residence of Letwaba’s spouse, who also benefited from Lottery funds.
Advocate Andy Mothibi, the pinnacle of the SIU, instructed the Trade, Industry and Competition Parliamentary Portfolio Committee in September that his unit was investigating over R1.4-billion in dodgy Lottery grants.
Minister Ebrahim Patel instructed the committee assembly that the “syndicates responsible for looting public [Lottery] funds were able to rely on a network of professional firms that enabled the monies to be redirected”, and that these syndicates had used “sophisticated methods to cover up their actions and deflect attention”.
Lawyers had helped facilitate the looting, he mentioned, and each Patel and the SIU mentioned that these attorneys could be reported to their skilled our bodies for motion to be taken, together with potential disbarment.
The order was granted to the AFU, primarily based on investigations by the SIU, which has been probing Lottery corruption ever since President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation in November 2020 authorising the investigation.
The AFU turned concerned after Willie Hofmeyr, a former head of the unit and now an NLC board member, pushed for them to hitch the investigation. The SIU is barely mandated to recuperate cash misplaced by means of corruption, whereas the AFU has prosecutorial powers.
“The next step will be to apply for a forfeiture order,” NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana mentioned in a media assertion. “Once a forfeiture order is granted, the properties will be sold at public auction, and proceeds returned to the NLC.”
Mahanjana mentioned that Lottery grants have been used to purchase luxurious properties “for the benefit of employees of the NLC and members of the non-profit organisations and/or their family members/friends.”
“In most instances, the properties were registered in the names of the entities and not in the name of private individuals. Some entities masqueraded as construction companies but did not do construction (or very little) and were effectively used as money laundering vehicles to receive kickbacks from non-profit organisations who received grants from the NLC,” she mentioned.
GroundUp has reliably realized that the SIU has “made criminal referrals” to the NPA involving Letwaba, Ramulifho, Mampane, Nevhutanda, former board member William Huma, who benefited hugely from Lottery grants, and Mashudu Shandukani, who’s included in Friday’s order, and his spouse, Pretty.
Shandukani’s firm was the primary contractor on a Lottery-funded mission to build a school in Limpopo, the place tens of millions of rands have been misappropriated.
Movie and TV star
Pheto has loved a stellar profession as an actress. A spotlight was starring in Tsotsi, which gained a number of awards, together with an Oscar for finest overseas movie in 2005. She additionally landed a component within the common American soapie, The Bold and the Beautiful and starred in a film known as How to Steal 2 Million.
Pheto, who lives in the home along with her husband, is an in depth good friend of the previous NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda, whose scandal-ridden term resulted in November 2020.
One of the administrators of Zibsimode is Rudzani Nemaungani, a pastor in Nevhutanda’s Higher Grace International Church. Zibsimode was awarded over R20 million from the NLC’s Arts and Culture sector for an “initiation programme” within the 2017/18 monetary yr.
A doc leaked to GroundUp in 2018 revealed how a whistleblower raised a purple flag concerning the mission. Despite this, the non-profit organisation acquired an additional R2 million within the 2021/22 monetary yr from the NLC’s charities sector.
It is just not identified what the second grant was for.
A Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) software in 2018 requesting details about the Zibsimode grant was refused by the NLC on the grounds that it was sure by legislation to guard the privateness of its grant recipients.
Pheto’s sister, Dimakatso, is a director of Zibsibix, a non-profit firm that acquired R5 million from the NLC in 2018/19.
Details of what this funding was used for aren’t identified. The firm was purchased “off-the-shelf” on 11 July 2018, after which new administrators, together with Pheto’s sister, have been appointed. The grant was paid out someday between July and 31 March 2019, the tip of the NLC’s monetary yr.
Properties frozen
Several individuals and entities have been named within the order obtained by the AFU. Here are key particulars:
- Collins Tshisimba (see here) is a central determine in a number of dodgy Lottery-funded initiatives, together with one to build a school in Vuwani in Limpopo, the place tens of millions have been misappropriated. Two townhouses in Centurion belonging to him and his spouse, allegedly paid for with Lottery funds, have been frozen.
- Tshisimba is married to Fulufhelo Promise Kharivhe (see here), sole director of Thwale Front, a non-profit organisation, which was allegedly used to launder tens of millions in looted Lottery grants to NPOs. Thwale paid R1.9 million into Huma’s residence bond in April 2018. An quantity of R200 000 was additionally transferred into Thwala Front (Pty) Ltd’s checking account by The Message, a non-profit organisation that acquired a R1.6 million grant within the 2018/19 monetary yr.
- AO Residence Trust, represented by Mashudu Shandukani, was the primary contractor that constructed the Vuwani college. Shandukani’s magnificent residence was featured on Top Billing just a few years in the past. It is just not identified if this residence was amongst these frozen by the order.
- Rasemate Family Trust, of which Letwaba’s second spouse is a trustee, owns a luxurious residence on the Midstream Estate close to Pretoria that was frozen. She lives in the home with the couple’s two youngsters.
- The Mojakgomo Family Trust, of which Mampane, her husband, and two grownup youngsters are beneficiaries, owns the house within the Pecanwood Golf Estate in Hartebeesfontein, in North West, during which she and her husband stay.
- A farm is frozen that belongs to lawyer Lesley Ramulifho, who has been amongst these at the heart of the looting.
- Terry Pheto’s residence in Bryanston is frozen.
- The second Bryanston residence, owned by Upbrand Properties Trust, represented by director Sthembiso Jim Skosana, has been frozen.
- Two Ocean Basket franchises at Carnival City and Carnival Mall in Gauteng have been frozen. These have been purchased by Ramulifho utilizing cash from a grant to build a drug rehabilitation centre. Ramulifho admitted to “borrowing” the cash from the organisation (in breach of the phrases of the grant) however claimed that he had repaid it. He used forged proof of payments and doctored bank statements to “prove” this in to date unsuccessful litigation to pressure GroundUp to take away tales about him from its web site. GroundUp went to courtroom after the Legal Practice Council rejected its grievance in opposition to Ramulifho. The matter will come before a judge within the Johannesburg High Court on 10 November;
- A home owned by the Just Cuban Trust, which is related to Letwaba, is frozen.
Well-informed sources have confirmed that investigations into additional issues involving the abuse of Lottery funds are nearing completion and extra functions to freeze belongings can be introduced earlier than the courts quickly.
“The freezing of assets is just the beginning,” mentioned a supply with data of the investigations, who requested to stay nameless as a result of they don’t seem to be mandated to talk to the media.
“There is a willpower from everybody concerned to scrub up the Lottery and recuperate cash stolen by means of corruption.
“We will not rest until the money is recovered and the people involved are held to account,” the supply mentioned.
Copyright (C) GroundUp 2022
This article was first revealed on GroundUp.
