Luxury Home of Lottery “Kingpin” Frozen by Special Tribunal

The luxury home of Alfred Sigudhla, a kingpin in the looting of South Africa’s lottery, has been frozen under a preservation order issued by the Special Tribunal.

• The luxury home of Alfred Sigudhla in Centurion has been frozen by the Special Tribunal.
• The Special Investigating Unit uncovered how National Lotteries Commission grants meant for community projects and an old age home were diverted through non-profit companies and private entities to purchase the property.
• Sigudhla’s Southern African Youth Movement had received nearly R70-million in lottery funding.

The luxury home of Alfred Sigudhla, a kingpin in the looting of South Africa’s lottery, has been frozen under a preservation order issued by the Special Tribunal.

The home on the Silverstream gated estate in Centurion, Pretoria, was bought using money siphoned from lottery grants. Money that had been allocated for good causes was laundered through “a network of non-profit companies (NPCs) and private entities” before being paid to a transferring attorney, according to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Sigudhla is one of 14 people and two private and two non-profit companies named in the Tribunal order. It was granted to the SIU on 23 April but was only made public now as those named in it first had to be served a copy of the order.

Sigudhla is the founder and executive director of the Southern African Youth Movement (SAYM). This organisation received nearly R70-million in grants. This included funding for an old-age home in the Free State, a drug rehabilitation centre in Mpumalanga, and a musical that was meant to tour three provinces but only ran for five days.

All of SAYM’s Lottery-funded projects are under investigation by the SIU, and have also regularly featured in GroundUp’s ongoing, seven-year-long investigation into Lottery corruption

The SIU investigation used bank statements to follow the money. This revealed how funds were diverted from a R23-million grant allocated to build an old age home in the Free State and a R13-million grant to a KZN-based non-profit for an agriculture project. It also uncovered how over R3.7-million was paid to an attorney handling the sale of the house.

The property on the Midstream Estate in Centurion was purchased for cash when Sigudhla was a director of Smart Safety PPE, “signing key transaction documents”, the SIU said in a statement.

A house on the same estate owned by the wife of former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, which was paid for with lottery funds, has also been frozen by the Tribunal.

Diverted funds

The SIU investigation “revealed that funds intended for community projects, including agricultural development and an old-age home, were diverted to purchase the property through a network of non-profit companies (NPCs) and private entities,” SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said in the statement.

He said that after the SAYM received R23-million for the Free State old age home, it paid R1.6-million to Smart Safety PPE. In turn, Smart Safety paid R1.67-million to the transferring attorney towards the cost of Sigudhla’s home.

Malusi We Sizwe NPC, which received R13-million in the 2018/19 financial year for an agricultural project in KwaZulu-Natal also chipped in. After it was paid by the NLC, it transferred nearly R900,000 to Trizaflo (Pty) Ltd. Trizaflo then paid R2.1-million to the attorney handling the sale of the Midstream house.

The property was registered under Smart Safety PPE. Sigudhla, then a director, signed the key transaction documents, the SIU said. After his resignation, he remained an “interested party” on the company’s bank account, according to the SIU.

Sigudhla resigned in October 2018.

Living the high life

GroundUp revealed in 2023 how Sigudhla had played a key role in lobbying for the introduction of proactive funding, which was at the heart of the looting of at least R2-billion in lottery funding. The introduction of proactive funding allowed the NLC to award grants without first having to receive an application.

SAYM, the organisation Sigudhla headed up, pushed for the introduction of proactive funding with the Trade, Industry and Competition Parliamentary Portfolio Committee during a hearing in 2013.

And after proactive funding was introduced, the SAYM went on to benefit to the tune of nearly R70-million in lottery grants.

Pictures on Sigudhla’s personal Facebook page, which he has since made private, suggested he lived a champagne life.

Investigative journalism outfit amaBhungane reported in 2020: “Before shutting down his Facebook profile, he liked to post photos of his collection of cars and bottles of Moët & Chandon, and parties with local celebrities.”

Alfred Sigudhla posted photos of his opulent lifestyle on Facebook before closing his account.

Over the years, SAYM received Lottery funding of over R69.6-million, made up of:

• A total of R27.5-million for an old age home in Thaba Nchu, near Bloemfontein in the Free State, between 2017 and 2020. The facility has yet to open its doors. The provincial social development department previously told GroundUp that it already had an old age home in the area where the lottery-funded old age home is situated. When the department “was eventually consulted” in 2022, it had “advised that the old age home be repurposed to a substance abuse halfway house”, according to Lindiwe Mnguni of the Free State DSD.
• Almost R27-million for a drug rehabilitation centre in Nelspruit, between 2017 and 2021. Construction of the facility is yet to be completed, and the NLC is considering what to do with it, along with many other unfinished or abandoned lottery-funded projects.
• R15-million to produce and stage an anti-drug musical, which was co-written and directed by Tsotsi star Presley Chweneyagae, who died recently. But the production only did a handful of performances and never undertook the major three-province tour that was promised.
• R144,000 for a research project in 2011/2012 that investigated the funding of non-profits in South Africa.

Besides its nearly R70-million in lottery money, the SAYM managed to collect millions from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) for a Community Works Programme (CWP) in the Eastern Cape in 2018, amaBhungane reported.

Using COGTA records obtained through a Promotion of Access to Information Act application, amaBhungane revealed that “at least ten contracts worth R13.6-million were awarded to companies run by SAYM staff, their business partners, and apparent members of Sigudhla’s family”.

AmaBhungane also reported how SAYM allegedly sourced protective clothing for participants in the CWP programme from a factory that Sigudhla set up in Pretoria to manufacture T-shirts, overalls, and hats to the specifications that the tender would require. The factory was set up just weeks before the tender was issued.

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