Author: Tania Broughton

The Special Tribunal has ordered the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (SASCOC) and entities linked to former NLC officials to repay nearly R25-million in lottery funds. The funds were used for a Rio Olympics roadshow, with most of the money diverted to entities linked to former National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Philemon Letwaba. The tribunal found SASCOC’s then chief financial officer disregarded his fiduciary duties — and ruled he and SASCOC were jointly liable for R150,000, with the remaining respondents ordered to repay R24.83-million. The award of the funding was also declared to be unlawful. The Special…

The legal bid by former Passenger Rail Agency (PRASA) board members to set aside findings of corruption against them by the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture is floundering. This week, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya refused to grant permission to sue retired Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who had chaired the inquiry. In terms of the Superior Courts Act, any party wishing to take legal action against a judge has to apply for consent from the Chief Justice or relevant head of court, prior to launching an application. Former PRASA CEO Lucky Montana and board members Sfiso Buthelezi, Bridgette Gasa,…

Winning Lottery licence bidder Sizekhaya says suggestions of political connections to Deputy President Paul Mashatile are just “gossip” Sizekhaya is opposing a court attempt by losing bidder Ithuba Lottery to set aside the award of the licence. Ithuba says the adjudication process was flawed. Suggestions that Deputy President Paul Mashatile has “political connections” with lottery licence winning bidder Sizekhaya are just “gossip and conspiracy theories”, the consortium says. And losing bidder Ithuba Lottery “is well aware that nothing in these reports establishes any breach of the Lotteries Act or the requirements of the [licence] Request for Proposals”, Sizekhaya attorney Rishaban…

A second court challenge has been launched against Minister Parks Tau’s decision to award the fourth lottery licence to Sizekhaya Holdings. Ithuba Lottery has raised concerns about alleged political connections between Sizekhaya’s shareholders Moses Tembe and Sandile Zungu and the ANC, including reported links to Deputy President Paul Mashatile. Ithuba Lottery also says Sizekhaya Holdings failed to meet the necessary requirements of immediate funding and seamless transition, evidenced by the minister’s need to grant a temporary 12-month licence. Ithuba Lottery has initiated court proceedings seeking to overturn Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau’s decision to award the fourth…

At least 250,000 people have waited up to seven years for Home Affairs to process their late birth registration applications. Without birth certificates, children face numerous complications in life and struggle to access schools and grants. The Children’s Institute wants the Western Cape High Court to declare the Department of Home Affairs’ delays unconstitutional. At least a quarter of a million people have been waiting years for their applications for late birth registration to be processed. And this is a conservative estimate, the Children’s Institute says in its papers filed with the Western Cape High Court. The court application seeks…

Lekalinga, a Serbian-based company that teamed up with local partners to bid for the fourth lottery licence, has taken Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau to court. The company seeks to set aside the minister’s decision to award the fourth lottery licence to Sizekhaya Holdings. Lekalinga wants the minister to produce the reasons for his decision in 15 days. The company wants to know if the minister assessed whether any political party or political office-bearers hold a direct or indirect financial interest in Sizekhaya. A losing bidder for the fourth lottery licence has filed an application in the…

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) is losing millions in default court judgments. A default court judgment occurs when the respondent, the RAF in this case, fails to defend against a claim. The RAF often does not send lawyers to court, and is therefore unrepresented. Then, when the RAF applies to rescind (annul) these default judgments, it often loses, incurring further costs. The RAF is failing in its constitutional duties, said Judge Jan Pretorius. A judge of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has blasted the Road Accident Fund (RAF) for its “chaotic approach to litigation” which has resulted in huge…

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has obtained a preservation order from the Special Tribunal freezing R25-million in assets linked to a corrupt National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grant. The order, granted in April by Judge Margaret Victor, freezes two luxury properties and a high-value Powerstar drill/cleaner from funds that were meant for the 2016 Rio Olympics “Roadshow Send-Off” campaign. The judgment comes after an SIU investigation into a coordinated scheme involving the Mshandukani Foundation, a non-profit organisation registered just four months before receiving the grant. In July 2016, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) applied for funding on…

Current policy which bars prisoners from using personal computers in their cells to study is unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court has ruled. In a unanimous ruling the court directed the National Commissioner of Correctional Services to revise the policy. Meanwhile inmates must be allowed to use personal computers without modems, the court said. The judges upheld a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal in November 2023, which the Minister of Correctional Services and the National Commissioner had challenged. In a unanimous ruling, the Constitutional Court has declared that barring prisoners from using personal computers in their cells for studying, is…

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) wants to join court proceedings in which a journalist and three “whistleblowers” were barred from making allegations against ARTsolar. The IDC had funded ARTsolar for R90-million to build a solar panel manufacturing plant in South Africa but it has been alleged that the company is importing panels from China rather than manufacturing them locally. Under the court order, IDC is prohibited from speaking to the “whistleblowers”. The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) has launched an urgent application to join court proceedings through which a journalist and three “whistleblowers” have been gagged from making…

President Cyril Ramaphosa is standing firm on his decision to sign a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe corruption at the National Lotteries Commision (NLC). Ramaphosa has filed a personal affidavit in a court application launched in the Pretoria High Court by Alfred Nevhutanda, former chairman of the NLC, in which Nevhutanda seeks to review and set aside the proclamation signed in October 2020. That application gave the SIU authority to investigate “maladministration” in the NLC from January 2014 to October 2020 which, Ramaphosa notes in his opposing affidavit, “falls in the main under [Nevhutanda’s] tenure”. The…

Former National Lotteries Commission chief operations officer Phillemon Letwaba argues that the Special Tribunal lacks the authority to order the forfeiture of assets. The SIU obtained an interdict to stop the sale of Letwaba’s farm in Limpopo purchased for R4.7-million with money allegedly diverted from lottery grants. Letwaba’s challenge follows former NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda’s attempt to have the SIU investigation declared unlawful. Former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) chief operations officer Phillemon Letwaba is challenging the constitutionality of the Special Tribunal’s power to order the freezing and forfeiture of assets deemed to be the proceeds of crime. Letwaba’s legal…

Suspended National Lotteries Commission (NLC) legal boss Gugulethu Yako has failed to appeal a high court ruling that she must face disciplinary action. Johannesburg Acting High Court Judge Johan Moorcroft described Yako’s bid to set aside the ruling of her disciplinary hearing as a “delay tactic”. He dismissed Yako’s application to appeal and ordered that she pay the costs of the application. Suspended National Lotteries Commission (NLC) legal boss Gugulethu Yako has failed in an application to appeal an earlier high court ruling that she must face disciplinary proceedings against her. Read the refusal to grant leave to appeal here. In…

The Western Cape High Court has ruled that a bequest to a white supremacy group would promote racial hatred. Judge Rosheni Allie said the bequest by Grantland Michael Bray to Boerelegioen would be used for illegal training purposes which violated constitutional values. The judge said common law provided for a declaration of unenforceability in a will where a provision would fund unlawful and discriminatory activities. Evidence was that Bray was paranoid about an “impending white genocide” before his death in 2022 and added the bequest to his will. A bequest by a Cape Town man to a white supremacy group…

My Vote Counts has gone to court to seek an overhaul of the Political Party Funding Act as amended by the Electoral Matters Amendment Act to compel parties to fully disclose all donations. Currently, political parties don’t have to disclose donations under R100,000, and individuals can donate up to R15-million per year to a party. My Vote Counts argues that small donations to smaller parties can have significant influence while multiple related companies can make undisclosed donations just below the threshold The Democratic Alliance, Action SA and government ministers oppose the application, arguing that full disclosure would discourage donors who…

The Special Tribunal has dismissed an application by Marubini Ramatsekisa, former National Lotteries Commission chief risk officer, to get access to his R1.7-million pension benefit. The initial order blocking access was granted in December 2023. The judge dismissed Ramatsekisa’s application to have the order rescinded. The Special Investigating Unit has fingered Ramatsekisa for his role in a R4-million grant to a shelf company, Zibsicraft, for a study to assist the development of the Khoisan language. R2.2-million of this, the SIU says, went to buy property for the Higher Grace Christ Redeemer Church, represented by former NLC Board chair Alfred Nevhutanda, and…

In seeking to overturn the proclamation authorising a probe into corruption at the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), former NLC boss Alfred Nevhutanda is trying to avoid accountability and to “retain the proceeds of his corrupt conduct”, the Pretoria High Court has been told. Special Investigating Unit (SIU) Chief Forensic Investigator Tsholofelo Mkise has filed an affidavit opposing Nevhutanda’s legal challenge to the proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa authorising the SIU to investigate. Mkise says Nevhutanda’s contention, that the proclamation was unlawful because the NLC was not a “state entity” which dealt with “public money” as he claimed were required…

The inquiry into a sexual harassment complaint against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge started on Monday. The evidence leader says even on Judge Mbenenge’s own version, he is guilty of gross misconduct. The complainant, a young secretary, gave testimony. All evidence will now be heard in public after a Judicial Conduct Tribunal reversed a previous ruling that some evidence would be held in camera. Eastern Cape High Court Judge President Selby Mbenenge, who is facing possible impeachment for sexually harassing a young secretary, had even on his own version admitted to “gross misconduct”. This was according to advocate Salomé…

A law firm has been left with legal egg on its face – and the possibility of facing a Legal Practice Council (LPC) investigation – for allegedly using “Google” and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to source what were non-existent legal citations in court proceedings. Pietermaritzburg-based Surendra Singh and Associates has also been ordered to pay the costs, from its own coffers, of two court hearings in September last year during which Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Elsja-Marie Bezuidenhout interrogated its court documents and references to case law. From submissions and her own research the judge concluded that “while the real source of…

A woman paid R5.5-million to what she thought was the conveyancing law firm for a property she bought. But she had been scammed; the email soliciting payment from her was not from the law firm, and the money had been paid into the account of the scammers. At the High Court the law firm was found liable for the woman’s loss and was also ordered to pay punitive costs. But the Supreme Court of Appeal has overturned the High Court’s decision. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has overturned a High Court ruling that had found leading law firm Edward…

The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Shell, Impact Africa and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, to overturn a High Court ruling that halted an seismic survey off the Wild Coast. Dismissing the application with costs, the court said community participation had been “illusory”. However, the court has left the door open for Impact Africa and Shell to proceed with their third and final attempt for a renewal of the 2014 exploration rights. But proper and meaningful consultation must be done with local communities who say the seismic survey will impact their livelihoods. The Supreme…

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is continuing with his court battles to scrap the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) programme. In June 2023, the Pretoria High Court ruled that the termination of the ZEP had been unlawful and unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Appeal then dismissed his appeal on the grounds that it had no prospects of success, but now the Minister has turned to the Constitutional Court, essentially on the same grounds, asking that it adjudicate over the issue. In the application lodged in the apex court, Home Affairs director-general Livhuwani Tommy Makhode, who is the second applicant after the…

A Judicial Conduct Tribunal is hearing a complaint against Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi in Johannesburg. The judge failed to deliver 21 judgments timeously. Retired Judge Chris Jafta is chairing the tribunal. On Monday he instructed the public to leave the hearing and said it would take place in camera. Judge Jafta said this was the default position for tribunals. Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi’s legal team was concerned that if the hearing was held in public it would compromise the testimony of witnesses in her defence who are expected to talk about the judge’s personal problems. The Judicial Conduct Tribunal inquiry into the possible…

By Tania Broughton A woman and three organisations took Home Affairs to court for blocking Identity Documents without following a just administrative process. About 700,000 IDs were blocked as at September 2023, meaning people with these IDs could not obtain passports, could not vote, access health care, education or open bank accounts. Their children, who were linked to the IDs, suffered similarly. This week the Pretoria High Court found that Home Affairs has been acting unconstitutionally. The judge gave the department 12 months to remedy the situation. The blocking of IDs by the Department of Home Affairs, without notice, timeous investigation…