Two More Lottery Officials Dismissed After Appeals Fail

Two senior National Lotteries Commission staff members have been dismissed after their appeals against their summary dismissals last year were unsuccessful.

• Sanele Dlamini, former acting chief operating officer, and Sibonelo Vilakazi, a Durban-based client liaison officer, have had their appeals against summary dismissal from the Lottery rejected.
• Dlamini was found guilty on four charges related to approving questionable payments, providing dishonest recommendations, and dereliction of duty.
• Both officials have now filed complaints with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

Two senior National Lotteries Commission (NLC) staff members have been dismissed after their appeals against their summary dismissals last year were unsuccessful.

Sanele Dlamini, former acting chief operating officer, and Sibonelo Vilakazi, a Durban-based client liaison officer, appealed their dismissal findings last year, which effectively suspended their dismissals. This resulted in their continued suspensions on full pay until the appeals against their summary dismissals failed.

Both have now lodged complaints with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) contesting their dismissals.

Dlamini faced charges relating to his approving questionable payments, providing dishonest recommendations, and dereliction of duty, mainly concerning grant funding processes. He pleaded not guilty when he appeared before a disciplinary hearing but was found guilty on most of the charges and recommended for summary dismissal.

He subsequently appealed the guilty ruling, arguing procedural and substantive unfairness, but his appeal was unsuccessful.

“Dlamini faced six charges stemming from misconduct during his tenure in senior positions, including Provincial Manager: KwaZulu-Natal, Senior Manager: Grant Operations, and Acting COO,” the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) said in a statement soon after he was found guilty on four charges last year at his original disciplinary hearing.

“His dismissal was finalised on 27 September 2024,” the SIU said.

Millions in kickbacks

GroundUp previously reported that one of the projects that formed part of Dlamini’s charges was a sports centre in Soweto that was never built, despite the NLC forking out millions of rands.

The Motheo Sports and Entertainment Foundation was awarded R9-million by the NLC in 2021 to build a sports complex in Soweto. The NLC had already paid out R6-million to Montheo but stopped the final tranche when a monitoring and evaluation site visit revealed that nothing had been built on the property, which was being used as a dumping ground. The NLC is attempting to get the money back.

Meanwhile, Vilakazi was found guilty of charges relating to gross misconduct, abuse of office, and breaches of his fiduciary duty. He was also found guilty of conflict of interest for not disclosing that his wife benefited from payments made to her company by non-profits who received lottery grants.

GroundUp reported in 2023 how over 400 daycare centres and football clubs paid almost R32-million from their lottery grants, between 2019 and 2023, to ZZET Enterprises (Pty) Ltd., a company linked to Vilakazi’s wife, Nosipho Zanele Zuma, and into accounts linked to both of them.

The Special Tribunal subsequently granted a preservation order against ZZET and also froze bank accounts into which Lottery money had been paid.

The SIU’s investigations revealed how Vilikazi approached daycare centres and football clubs in KZN to ask them to apply for grant funding. Immediately after receiving funding, these clubs and centres would then transfer large sums of money into ZZET’s bank account, as well as other bank accounts linked to Zuma and Vilakazi, the SIU said.

“The money was paid into the accounts by non-profit organisations that received funding from the NLC to improve the conditions of ordinary South Africans but [instead] made its way into bank accounts for self-enrichment”.

The NLC funds were used to purchase vehicles, including two Toyota Quantums and a Toyota Hilux, as well as two “real estate properties”, according to the SIU.

SIU welcomes guilty findings

Following their original guilty findings, the SIU, which had investigated both men, issued a statement welcoming their dismissals.

The SIU said it had referred both men for disciplinary action by the NLC “following an extensive investigation” in terms of a 2020 Presidential Proclamation authorising it to investigate corruption involving lottery grants to non-profits.

“The investigation focused on allegations of corruption, maladministration, and misuse of NLC grant funds. It revealed systemic governance failures and personal enrichment at the expense of public resources,” the SIU said in its November 2024 statement.

“The dismissal of Mr Vilakazi and Mr Dlamini forms part of the implementation of the SIU’s investigation outcomes and consequence management to correct any wrongdoing it uncovered during the investigation.”

The SIU statement listed its “key findings” in its investigations into lottery corruption:

• misappropriation of grant funds earmarked for community development;
• use of falsified documentation to facilitate payments to non-compliant entities; and
• failures in oversight and accountability, with senior officials acting outside their authority to benefit themselves or their associates.

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